This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at the meaning and significance of the effort to decode the human genome.

Students learn how engineers apply their understanding of DNA to manipulate specific genes to produce desired traits, and how engineers have used this practice to address current problems facing humanity. They learn what genetic engineering means and examples of its applications, as well as moral and ethical problems related to its implementation. Students fill out a flow chart to list the methods to modify genes to create GMOs and example applications of bacteria, plant and animal GMOs.

One of the fastest-growing areas of medical research is that of genetic testing and gene therapy. This chapter introduces students to this area of DNA research and helps them explore the related ethical issues. Scientists have recently completed a preliminary ‰ŰĎmap‰Ű of all the genes in the human body. This is also known as the Human Genome Project and consists of all the sequences of DNA chemical units that tell a cell how to behave. This accomplishment has incredible benefits. However, it also raises new, complex issues that society cannot ignore.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Metagenomics is a powerful technique for studying complex microbial communities. The key computational step in this method is clustering genomic sequences from mixed samples into potential microbial genomes, but accurately classifying sequences from complex metagenomes remains challenging. Some tools depend on k-mer frequency and coverage, but such methods struggle to distinguish between similar genomes. Methods that address the similar genomes problem, like ones that rely on single-copy marker genes, in turn struggle with complex datasets. The newly developed MetaDecoder balances these challenges by using both types of methods broken into two steps. First, MetaDecoder simplifies the dataset by generating preliminary groups of sequences with the Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model (DPGMM). Then, these preliminary clusters are clustered further with a k-mer frequency probabilistic model and a modified Gaussian Mixture Model of single-copy marker gene coverage..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students perform an activity similar to the childhood “telephone” game in which each communication step represents a biological process related to the passage of DNA from one cell to another. This game tangibly illustrates how DNA mutations can happen over several cell generations and the effects the mutations can have on the proteins that cells need to produce. Next, students use the results from the “telephone” game (normal, substitution, deletion or insertion) to test how the mutation affects the survivability of an organism in the wild. Through simple enactments, students act as “predators” and “eat” (remove) the organism from the environment, demonstrating natural selection based on mutation.

Students learn about mutations to both DNA and chromosomes, and uncontrolled changes to the genetic code. They are introduced to small-scale mutations (substitutions, deletions and insertions) and large-scale mutations (deletion duplications, inversions, insertions, translocations and nondisjunctions). The effects of different mutations are studied as well as environmental factors that may increase the likelihood of mutations. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-assessments are provided.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The gut microbiome (GM) plays an integral role in overall human health, yet over 70% of human GM species have never been cultured, and these microbes may hold important clues into the function of the human GM and GM-host interactions. To address this gap, researchers recently cultured 10,558 bacterial isolates representing 400 GM species from 239 healthy human donors. Of the 400 cultured species, 102 new species were identified and characterized, 28 new genera and 3 new families were proposed, and 115 genomes were newly sequenced. These data were used to construct the human Gut Microbial Biobank, an open-access resource containing taxonomic and genetic information on over 80% of the dominant microbial taxa in the human gut. Although numerous gut microbes remain uncultured, the Gut Microbial Biobank sheds new light on the identities and functions of the microbes composing the human GM and has potential applications in the development of next-generation probiotics..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"St. Louis University researchers have discovered some of the molecular processes that lead to decline in patients with progeria. Their work also helps explain why certain drugs seemingly rejuvenate progeria cells, which could hint at more potent therapies against progeria. Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome is a rare genetic disease that causes premature aging. Rapid aging of different tissues causes death by teenage years, normally due to cardiovascular complications. Currently, therapies for this devastating disease provide patients minimal benefit. The origin of progeria is a mutation in the lamin A gene—responsible for fabricating structural proteins that help keep the cell nucleus sturdy and the genome intact. The mutated lamin A protein “progerin” destabilizes the cell nucleus, causes DNA damage, and ultimately leads to the aging effects found in patients with progeria. Now, the researchers have delved deeper to understand how progerin wreaks damage at the molecular level..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbial communities strongly affect biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, and human health. Although studying microbial functions in these incredibly diverse communities was once difficult, new approaches are making it easier. One such approach, metaproteomics, enables scientists to study changes in the expression of microbial proteins over space and time and provides important insights into gene-protein links and microbial functions. The new Metaproteomics Initiative seeks to establish a central hub for the discussion, standardization, and improvement of metaproteomics methods in order to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and advancement of this relatively new field of microbiome research. This initiative, sponsored by the European Proteomics Association, will feature a website, a social media presence, and various platforms and resources for education and communication..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This course provides a foundation in the following four areas: evolutionary and population genetics; comparative genomics; structural genomics and proteomics; and functional genomics and regulation.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"One-third of the Earth’s fresh water comes from groundwater repositories. These terrestrial subsurface aquifers are an important source of our drinking water. Understanding the geochemistry and ecology of groundwater – including its microbial communities – is critical for keeping our water safe. A recent study sought to further understand a newly discovered superphylum – Patescibacteria. Patescibacteria is a very large superphylum, with more than 20 candidate phyla defined since 2015. This newly discovered class of bacteria is prevalent in groundwater environments and has limited genetic material. With such little genetic information to work from, the researchers wondered how these bacteria were able to adapt to changes and thrive in their aquatic environment. Using genome-resolved metagenomics, they evaluated sequence data from groundwater-residing Patescibacteria..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This course provides broad exposure to research in biophysics and physical biology, with emphasis on the critical evaluation of scientific literature. Weekly meetings include in-depth discussion of scientific literature led by various MIT faculty on active research topics. Each session also includes a brief discussion of non-research topics including effective presentation skills, writing papers and fellowship proposals, choosing scientific and technical research topics, time management, and scientific ethics.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Of the 20 standard amino acids, 18 can be coded by two to six synonymous codons. The preference for certain synonymous codons over others is a phenomenon known as “codon usage bias,” and it's been found in all genomes examined to date. Growing evidence suggests that codon usage regulates protein structure and gene expression through translation-dependent and translation-independent mechanisms. In fact, codon usage has been discovered to play an important role in controlling the speed of translation elongation during mRNA translation, as well as in regulating protein folding and function in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Additionally, studies show that intrinsically disordered domain structures are sensitive to codon usage. These disordered structures play a critical role in many biological processes and are sites for important post-translational modifications..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Fresh water flows from rivers to estuaries and then to the sea, creating a salinity gradient as it meets the salt water of the ocean. While this salinity gradient is likely to have profound effects on the organisms that call these habitats home, its impact on microbial communities is far from clear. To fill this gap, researchers recently used genomic, transcriptomic, and geochemical data to examine microbial variation in both benthic and planktonic environments along a river-to-sea continuum. They observed a distinct increase in osmoregulation-related gene expression with increasing salinity and noted a prevalence of phosphate-acquisition activities among microorganisms inhabiting the freshwater zone, likely resulting from phosphate limitation, while carbon-, nitrogen-, and sulfur-cycling processes became dominant in brackish water, due to higher nutrient levels. In these brackish waters, photosynthesis was mainly conducted by cryptomonads in the water column and diatoms in the sediment..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.