Class meets: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:45AM -10:00AM, Room 207 Payson-Smith

Attendance: Attendance is highly recommended. While attendance is not required, the exams will be based on material presented in lecture as well as our textbook.

Required Text: Principles of Development, 3^rd Edition, 2006. Lewis Wolpert, et al. Available at the USM Bookstore.

Instructor: Dr. David Champlin Office: 305B Science Building, Portland

Email: champlin@maine.edu Office Phone: 228-8349

Office Hours: My “official” office hours will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2:00 - 4:00 PM, but you can make an appointment to meet with me at just about any time.

The study of development has been one of the central questions in biology throughout history. No area of biology is being impacted more dramatically by the modern methods of molecular genetic analysis than developmental biology and the field is in a golden era of research discovery. Developmental biologists examine the events from fertilization through the formation of the mature animal or plant and their subsequent reproductive cycles. Much of the focus is on embryogenesis, typically designated as the period between fertilization and birth. Until recently, developmental biology was called embryology.

The field of developmental biology is huge, reaching far beyond the embryo. For example, the study of cancer is one aspect of developmental biology. So too is the study of stem cells and the reasons for their prominence in the news. Also included is the study of the reiterative developmental events that occur during the reproductive cycles of animals and plants. A whole new area of study has recently sprung up called “Eco-Devo”. Eco-Devo stands for ecological developmental biology, the analysis of mechanisms by which the environment modulates developmental processes and the role these play in ecosystems. Of all the topics pursued by developmental biologists, by far the most significant is something called “Evo-Devo”, the evolution of developmental mechanisms. Research in developmental biology is having a profound effect on our understanding of the process of evolution and the history of life on Earth. Evo-Devo is the dominant, unifying theme of this course. The Eco-Devo and Evo-Devo topics introduced in this course are at the epicenter of all biology.

This course emphasizes the importance of clear, descriptive, scientific writing. Whether describing the development of a chick embryo viewed under a microscope through a hole chipped into the egg shell, or describing the molecular genetic interactions of the genes that determine which side of a fruit fly embryo will become the tummy, developmental biologists rely heavily on carefully chosen words. Large portions of each exam will be essay questions. Also, we will write and revise a research paper.

The text we will use is an excellent example of clear, concise scientific writing that focuses on the principles unifying the many areas of developmental biology. While maintaining this focus, we will also incorporate some of the amazing discoveries developmental biologists will undoubtedly report during the semester. It is an incredibly exciting time to be a developmental biologist and my goal for this course is to provide you the tools to share in this excitement.

Basis For Final Grade: The maximum number of points for the course is 500 as follows:

three exams each worth 100 points

review paper worth 100 points

cumulative final worth 100 points

If school is cancelled on a scheduled exam date due to weather, then the exam will automatically take place the next lecture period.

I will be happy to discuss your grade with you at any time. Many students find there is a LOT of material covered in this course. Consequently, there is a good chance you will work harder in this class for a lower grade compared to your other courses at USM.

After each exam, the distribution of scores for the class will be shown and letter grades assigned. Grades will be assigned based on your performance relative to the other students in the class and relative to the previous times I have taught this course. I attempt to position the breakpoints between letter grades based on natural clustering of student’s scores rather than artificially applying ten point intervals between grades. There will almost always be a few A’s, several B’s, several C’s, and some D’s and F’s. But the numbers of each may vary from class to class.

I assign final grades based on your grades for the exams and the review paper. I assign grades without looking at student’s names and afterwards I check to see how students performed with whom I am most familiar. They always have been assigned the grade I think they deserve whether it be a high, medium, or low grade.

Review Paper:

Development is one of the top journals in the field of developmental biology. Abstracts for the articles that appear in Development are at http://dev.biologists.org/ . You should choose an article that is in the “Research Articles” section (this is a primary research article rather than a review article). You should be able to download articles for free if they are more than six months old. Scan through abstracts in the journal and select one that covers a topic you find interesting - but you don’t need to understand any of the details of the article at this point. Once you are set on your research article, the next step will be to identify one or two review articles (These are often cited in the Introduction of the paper) and read them. Bring the article to class on October 6^th and we will discuss what your article is about and learn about how to use science databases. Be prepared to describe the article - but you don’t need to understand the details at this point.

The paper is due in class on November 17^th. Please turn in photocopies of the articles you read plus a paper with your own description of the following: Why were the experiments in the Development article done? What techniques were employed? What was learned? Before answering these questions, begin your paper with introductory background information you gleaned from the review articles that your classmates would need in order to understand your answers to these questions. There is no length requirement for this paper but it will likely be six pages or a bit more.

Web Resources:

A copy of this syllabus is available at: http://www.usm.maine.edu/~champlin/courseW.htm

At this site are copies of the exams from the previous time this course was taught. My goal will be to post the PowerPoint presentations I use in lecture at this site also.

The Society for Developmental Biology maintains a good web site (http://www.sdbonline.org/ ) with several links to time-lapse videos of developmental processes. We will project some of these in class but I also encourage you to look at some of these sites on your own. In general, these sites are big so they are slow to load on some computers. The computers in my research lab are very fast and you are welcome to make an appointment with me to use the computers in my lab for this purpose. There are lots of neat videos about developmental biology available on the web.

USM has an excellent office you should know about:

· Office of Academic Support for Students with Disabilities

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, please contact the OSSD Office.

Room 242 Luther Bonney Hall, 780-4706 Voice Phone, email: oassd@usm.maine.edu

web site: www.usm.maine.edu/oassd

Day Date Reading Topic

T 9/1 pp185-201 (Ch. 5) C. elegans, model systems, and molecular genetics

Th 9/3 Ch. 1 An introduction to developmental biology

T 9/8 More introduction and a review / refresher covering

gene expression

Th 9/10 Ch. 3 Patterning vertebrate axes and germ layers

T 9/15 More axis patterning

Th 9/17 Even more

T 9/22 Ch. 4 Early patterning of vertebrate nervous systems

Th 9/24 More early patterning of vertebrate nervous systems

T 9/28 EXAM 1 Chapters 1, 3, 4, and pp185-201

Th 10/1 Ch. 2 Molecular development of Drosophila

T 10/6 More molecular development of Drosophila

On Tuesday, 10/6, Please bring a copy of the primary research article you have selected (or more than one if you haven’t decided) plus your notes on the article.

Th 10/8 Ch. 6 Plant development

T 10/13 no class – October Vacation

Th 10/15 More plant development

T 10/20 Ch. 7 Mechanisms of morphogenesis

Th 10/22 More morphogenesis

T 10/27 Ch. 8 Cell differentiation

Th 10/29 Ch. 9 Organogenesis

T 11/3 More Organogenesis

Th 11/5 EXAM 2 Chapters 2, 6, 7, 8

T 11/10 Ch. 10 Development of the nervous system

Th 11/12 More neural development

T 11/17 Ch. 11 The saga of the germ cell

Your review paper is due at the beginning of class on Monday, 11/17

Th 11/19 More on reproduction

T 11/24 Ch. 12 Growth

Th 11/26 no class – Thanksgiving Break

T 12/1 More on Growth

Th 12/3 EXAM 3 Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12

T 12/8 Developmental biology in medicine

Th 12/10 Chapter 14 revisited

The Final Exam will cover all the material in the course.