Week 2
Major concept goals
-Microscopy requires that cell components interact with light or electrons.
-The wave nature of light is utilized in polarization microscopy and the particle nature of light is utilized in fluorescence microscopy.
-Live vs fixed cells and how analyzing living cells can lead to insights into order and dynamics of cell events.
-Understand the fundamentals of polarization microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy.
-Why electron microscopy provides better resolution than light microscopy and why most organelles were discovered with transmission electron microscopy.
-Protein function is based on the structure formed by a sequence of amino acids
-GTPase domains can change their shape depending upon whether they are bound to GTP or GDP
-Protein kinases can lead to changes in protein shape by the addition of phosphates
Overview of content
I. Microscopy
A. Light microscopy
1. Polarization microscopy (optional)
2. Fluorescence microscopy
a. Antibodies to label proteins
b. GFP/fluorescent protein tagging of proteins
B. Electron microscopy
1. Transmission electron microscopy (fixing, sectioning, staining)
2. Most organelles discovered with this technique
II. Mitochondria: structure and function
III. What organelles are made of
A. Protein structure and function
1. GTPase change in structure and function