Metabolic Pathways and Gene Regulation: A Practical Report

Demonstrate understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in metabolic pathways through the relationship between biochemical and biotechnological systems

1. Demonstrate understanding and the ability to analyse the regulation of the relationship between metabolites and gene expression, and to report the results from a relevant experiment based on information available from a variety of sources
2. Analyse the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in biotechnologically significant metabolic pathways through the relationship between biochemical and biotechnological systems.
3. Apply skills to collect and analyse data related to the control of the relationship between metabolites and /or gene expression and its effect on the system, and to report the results from a relevant experiment based on information available from a variety of sources.
4. Analyse and discuss the importance of microbiology and biotechnology to meet the needs of society, industry and consumer for sustainable food quality, safety and security of supply.
5. Assess data and methods used to detect, identify and enumerate microorganisms related to the food industry. Evaluate the methods used to control health risk and/or biotechnological applications in food processing.
6. Integrate knowledge of the modes of regulation and molecular basis of metabolic and genetic pathways at the molecular, cellular and whole human level.
7. Apply your understanding of fundamental biochemical and genetic principles and concepts introduced and demonstrate relevant skills to carry out experimental investigations.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

Please hand in a full practical report up to 2,000 words (excluding references, tables and appendices). The report should include the following sections:

Introduce the concept of gene regulation and the Lac Operon. This section must be referenced.

Describe the aim of the experiment and list the objectives.

Summarise the methods as briefly as possible. This should be presented in one paragraph and in the same way that methods are reported in scientific paper in Journals. Do not repeat the protocol.

Tabulate your results and prepare the corresponding graphs. Graphs should be presented to include a legend and created in Excel. Make sure that the data presented in your table matches the data presented in the corresponding graph. Do not fit your data using linear regression. Instead join your data points. Tables should be included with a title. This section must include some descriptive written comments to help the reader understand the information presented in the tables and graphs.

Compare the results obtained between the two different nutritional conditions. If there are any differences, explain the reasons for these in terms of your understanding of the mechanism of the lac operon.

• Select relevant scientific literature on an agreed research topic and clearly summarise in scientific English.
• Clearly present and appropriately analyse your results and discuss its outcome in relation to relevant peer-reviewed literature.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of relevant laboratory techniques.
• Demonstrate fundamental knowledge of the regulation of the enzyme beta-galactosidase
• Show a basic understanding of how experimental results relate to cellular metabolism.
• Clearly present and appropriately analyse your results.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of microbiology and biotechnology in foods and food production.
• Show ability in a range of practical molecular biology techniques relevant to biomedical science including data collection, analysis and interpretation of those data, and testing of hypotheses.
• Access biomedical science information from a variety of sources and to communicate the principles in an appropriate manner.
• Record data accurately and carry out basic manipulation of qualitative and quantitative data.

• contain a title page giving the assessment title, unit code, assessment number, your student number and your final word count (excluding references)
• be created electronically using Microsoft WORD. A high quality report will not include photographs of hand drawn graphs, but will contain graphs created electronically using Excel
• have completed all six sections of the report outlined above
• contain appropriately labelled tables and figures referred to in the main text
• include 10 references in the reference list and accurately cite these in the main text
• be 2000 words in length

How does this assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?

The 12 scheduled lectures for this co-taught unit describe the processes of replication, transcription and translation in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, the regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes and the theory underpinning a range of molecular biology tools and techniques. This assignment is based on a data set from an experiment examining the regulation of the expression of the enzyme beta galactosidase in E. coli in response to three different nutritional conditions. This experiment relates directly to lecture 6: Regulation of gene expression in bacteria. Tutorials 2 – 4 explain the details of the experiment, data handling and what is required from this assignment.