Biochemical education最新文献

A two-session experiment is proposed to train students with an easy, economic and educative procedure to detect the typical DNA ladder produced in many apoptotic events. The procedure is accurate enough to provide an easy way to compare degrees of damage in DNA caused by different treatments.

A student laboratory experiment is described dealing with chemical cross-linking analysis of Ca^2+-ATPase from rabbit muscle. The experiment introduces students to a wide range of techniques including subcellular fractionation, chemical cross-linking, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, blotting and immunochemical detection of proteins.

Eleven popular and recent biochemistry textbooks were examined and compared concerning the classification of amino acids as being gluco(glyco)genic, ketogenic, or both. The main differences concerned mostly two amino acids, threonine, which in some cases is considered only gluco(glyco)genic and in others both gluco(glyco)-ketogenic, and lysine, which is considered chiefly ketogenic, but in two cases is reported as being gluco(glyco)-ketogenic. Some more mistakes, discrepancies and curiosities among different textbooks are also reported. Biochemistry textbook authors and teachers should be aware of this situation to avoid any confusion, especially among students.

For sometime Turkish scientists have been actively involved in biotechnology related research. However, biotechnology educa-tion in Turkey is a relatively recent phenomenon. The subject has not been addressed at the undergraduate level in a serious way until recently. This is evident from the lack of undergraduate degree programmes in biotechnology at Turkish Universities. The Turkish scientific establishment is very much aware of the importance of biotechnology and has identified this subject as one of the priority areas. The Universities are taking positive steps towards enhancing Biotechnology education. This article focuses on the emergence, as well as the problems and prospects of Biotechnology education in Turkey.

Although it may be asked how effective glycolysis is in retaining the chemical energy in the bonds of glucose during its breakdown in the formation of ATP, the reasons for the coupled pathway of glycolysis having evolved as it has are probably as much as a consequence of the need to find reactions that can lead to formation of phosphoryl groups able to transfer to ADP as to the overall thermodynamics of the pathway. It is not meaningful to talk of optimization of energy coupling solely in terms of free energy changes.

Suspensions of mitochondria are turbid and scatter light. An increase in the matrix volume (swelling) due to the influx of permeable solutes results in a decrease in the amount of light scattered. This property can be used to study solute fluxes across the mitochondrial inner membrane. A rapid method for isolating mitochondria is presented along with three swelling experiments using energized and non-energized mitochondria to illustrate ion transport across energy transducing membranes.

A laboratory class was designed for the study of the ecology of amylolytic bacteria in soil, although other sources may be equally suitable for this purpose. Groups of three students carried out the following: (a) preparation and sterilization of medium and plates, (b) collection and preparation of soil samples, spreading the samples on the plates, (c) incubation of the plates at 37°C overnight, a further 1 h incubation at 60°C to observe amylolytic activity due to thermophilic bacteria, and (d) interpretation and discussion of the results. These tasks are accomplished in two periods of 4 h on consecutive days. No sophisticated instruments are required for these experiments, which can be carried out in three classes of 4 h each. On the first day the students prepare culture media, buffers and reagents, as well as collect and grow soil samples. The second day is spent for both taxonomic identification of colonies and the HAI determination.

Most textbooks still show the oxidation of succinate in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle resulting in the reduction of FADH₂. Such a presentation does not reflect the reaction catalysed by the enzyme in vivo or in vitro, does not simplify the treatment of the reaction, and is unnecessarily misleading and confusing.