Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, Marischal College
University of Aberdeen
This comprehensive program, written using Asymetrix Toolbook, aims to illustrate the use of specific transcriptional promoters for heterologous gene expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is used at present with third year Biotechnology undergraduates, but would also be suitable for teaching other courses (eg microbiology, genetics, biochemistry). The undergraduate is expected to optimize fermentation conditions for the production of a model mammalian protein. They use a set of three transcriptional promoters, change the initial carbon source, the time of addition of a second carbon source and the yeast strain. All of which influence the growth rate of the culture as well as protein production. The undergraduate then writes a report, answering a set of questions. The program is structured to allow browsing of as much or as little of background material as required. It allows an unlimited number of experiments to be carried out (impractical in a real laboratory situation), and the user is asked to log what they have done. The program is divided into 5 main sections:-