Fall 2009 Course Syllabus for Biology 316: Principles of Animal Development

wk	date		Lecture topic (readings in DB will be given in lecture powerpoints)	lab (read lab manual sections and look at plates before coming to lab)
1	Aug.	24	Introduction to class	History of developmental biology
		26	Fertilization
		28	Amphibian cleavage & gastrulation Links to frog development movies	How to do developmental biology
2	Aug.	31	Bird cleavage & gastrulation Links to chick development movies	Compound scopes and Early frog slides (pp 59-66, 72-74, 80-83; Vade Mecum)
	Sept.	2	Bird cleavage and gastrulation continued
		4	Neurulation and mesoderm formation	0-18 hr chick slides (pp. 322-325, 87, 108-121, 134) 24 hr chick slides (pp. 122-132, 135-136; Vade Mecum) 24 chick serial section movie
3		6	Mammal cleavage & gastrulation	33 hr chick slides (pp. 87-94, 96-107; Vade Mecum serial slide sequence) 33 hr chick serial section movie
		9	Catch-up
		11	Teleost cleavage & gastrulation	48 hr chick slides (pp 138-171), 48 hr chick serial section movie
4		14	Mechanisms I: Morphogenesis and cell behaviors	4 mm frog slides (pp. 66-68, 75-79, 83-84) 4 mm frog serial sections in Ppt 4 mm frog serial section movie
		16	Mechanisms II: cell fate specification, differentiation and differential gene expression
		18	Catch-up	Review
5		21	Specifying the body plan in Xenopus I	Lab test 1
		23	Specifying the body plan in Xenopus II
		25	Specifying body axes in fish, birds and mammals	Discuss lab exam, hand out reading assignment: Spemann's organizer and self-regulation in amphibian embryos Questions for reading assignment
6		28	Catch-up, reading assignment due by beginning of class	Discussion of reading assignment
		30	Review
	Oct.	2	Lecture test 1	Making experimental tools
7		5	Specifying the paraxial mesoderm	Chick embryo observations and culture techniques
		7	Specifying the paraxial mesoderm continued
		9	Differentiation of bone, cartilage and muscle	Frog embryo observations and manipulations, Research topic due
8		12	Bone, cartilage, muscle continued	Retinoic acid experiments on frogs
		14	Patterning the vertebrate head
		16	Organogenesis: neural crest	Observations, discussion, photography of retinoic acid experiments
9		19	Neural crest continued, hand out reading assignments: The cellular and molecular origins of beak morphology The bills of qucks and duails Questions for quck reading assignment	Discussion of How to write a lab report using retinoic acid experiment
		21	Discussion of quck paper and questions in class reading assignment due at beginning of class
		23	Organogenesis: the eye	Introduction of group lab experiments
10		26	Organogenesis: morphogenetic fields and limbs	Select topics and start designing group lab experiments
		28	Fruit fly development
		30	Patterning the fruit fly body plan: Part 1	Meet with professor and finalize Intro, MMs & schedule
11	Nov.	2	Patterning the fruit fly body plan: Part 2 Links to Drosophila development movies	Group lab day 1, Intro, MMs, Schedule for group lab experiments due
		4	Catch-up
		6	Review	Group lab day 2, Research outline due
12		9	Lecture test 2	Group lab day 3
		11	Germ cell formation
		13	Metamorphosis: amphibians, fish	Group lab day 4
13		16	Metamorphosis: invertebrates	Group Presentations of Results and Discussion
		18	Catch-up
		20	Regeneration	Lab test 2
14		23	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
		25	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
		27	Thanksgiving	Thanksgiving
15		30	Growth	Research presentations
	Dec.	2	Catch-up, Discuss lab exam
		4	Review	Research presentations