Fall 2008 Course Syllabus for Biology 316: Principles of Animal Development

wk	date		Lecture topic (readings in DB will be announced in lecture)	lab (read lab manual sections and look at plates before lab)
1	Aug.	25	Introduction to class	History of developmental biology
		27
		29	Fertilization	How to do developmental biology
2	Sept.	1	Amphibian cleavage & gastrulation Links to frog development movies	Compound scopes and Early frog slides (pp 25-31, 38-40, 46-48; Vade Mecum)
		3	Bird cleavage & gastrulation Links to chick development movies
		5	Bird cleavage and gastrulation continued	0-18 hr chick slides (pp. 290-293, 53, 74-87, 100) 24 hr chick slides (pp. 88-98, 101-102; Vade Mecum)
3		8	Neurulation and mesoderm formation	33 hr chick slides (pp. 53-60, 62-73; Vade Mecum serial slide sequence)
		10	Mammal cleavage & gastrulation
		12	Teleost cleavage & gastrulation	48 hr chick slides (pp 104-137), Review
4		15	Mechanisms I: Morphogenesis and cell behaviors	4 mm frog slides (pp. 32-34, 41-45, 49-50) Frog thin sections Review
		17	Mechanisms II: cell fate specification, differentiation and differential gene expression
		19	OUT OF TOWN	OUT OF TOWN
5		22	OUT OF TOWN	OUT OF TOWN
		24	Specifying the body plan in Xenopus I	Review time to be announced
		26	Specifying the body plan in Xenopus II	Lab test 1
6		29	Catch-up and Review	Reading assignment: Spemann's organizer and self-regulation in amphibian embryos Questions for reading assignment
	Oct.	1	Lecture test 1
		3	Holiday	Holiday
7		6	Specifying body axes in fish, birds and mammals	Reading assignment due by end of class, Discussion of reading assignment in lab
		8	Specifying the paraxial mesoderm
		10	Specifying paraxial mesoderm continued	Making experimental tools
8		13	Differentiation of bone, cartilage and muscle	Chick embryo observations and culture techniques
		15	Bone, cartilage, muscle differentiation continued
		17	Patterning the vertebrate head	Frog embryo observations and manipulations, Research topic due
9		20	Organogenesis: neural crest	Retinoic acid experiments on frogs
		22	Reading assignments: The cellular and molecular origins of beak morphology The bills of qucks and duails Questions for quck reading assignment due at beginning of next class	Observations, discussion, photography of retinoic acid experiments
		24	Discussion of quck paper and questions in class	Discussion of How to write a lab report on retinoic acid experiment
10		27	Organogenesis: the eye	Discussion of group lab experiments
		29	Organogenesis: morphogenetic fields and limbs
		31	Fruit fly development	Select topics and start designing group lab experiments
11	<Nov.	3	Patterning the fruit fly body plan: Part 1	Meet with professor and finalize Intro, MMs & schedule
		5	Patterning the fruit fly body plan: Part 2 Links to Drosophila development movies Intro, MMs, Schedule for group lab experiments due
		7	Catch-up lecture	Group lab day 1
12		10	Review	Group lab day 2 Research outline due
		12	Lecture test 2
		14	Germ cell formation	Group lab day 3
13		17	Metamorphosis: amphibians, fish	Presentations of Results and Discussion of group lab experiments
		19	Metamorphosis: invertebrates
		21	Regeneration
14		24	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
		26	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
		28	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
15	Dec.	1	Growth	Lab test 2
		3	Research presentations	Research presentations
		5	Research presentations	Research presentations