Week Three: Overview

Genetic Regulation & Sensing; Intro to Microbial Genomics

Hello Week Three!

This week we will continue our explorations inside the prokaryotic cell. Hot topics include, but are not limited to, the mechanisms by which Bacteria and Archaea sense and respond to their environment, including catabolic ("have food, must digest") and anabolic ("no food, must cook") functions and how environmental signals (osmotic stress, social interactions, and chemical gradients) elicit signal transduction cascades that modify the behavior of microbes. Stupid awesome stuff.

Next we will venture into the ridiculousness that is all things microbial genomics. Why is genomics synonymous with modern biology and how does all of the cellular genetic and metabolic diversity exist in these teeny, tiny organisms? Genomic biology is a like a middle school dance turned jazz club turned rave turned headbangers ball...with a splash of Travis Scott and Drake to keep the vibe. A little something for everyone...

Activities

Readings

Videos

Assignments

Required readings:

Wk3_HalothermothrixGenome.pdf

See optional textbook reading list on the Syllabus...

Lecture videos will uploaded approximately 8-12 hours after the live lectures. All videos will be embedded in the Week module pages and made available in the Media Gallery

Due FRIDAY October 23th

"My Favorite Microbe 🧡"
There are millions of prokaryotic microbes on our planet, ranging from human pathogens that cause opportunistic infections to global pandemics and environmental bacteria that produce the oxygen that we breath. Identify one specific prokaryote, that means Genus and species (e.g. Escherichia coli or Prochlorococcus marinus), that is of personal interest and provide a brief 2 or 3 sentence summary of why this microbes is significant. It could be anything so start your search by thinking about relevance... health, industry, fermentation, agriculture, environment, etc.