Database query to prove your intuitions on gene predictions and genetic mutations

    

Eric Wai Keung Chu

Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2025, Volume 45

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v45.art4

Supplemental Materials: https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v45.sup4

Abstract

Developing hypotheses and researching solutions towards recent scientific discoveries can help students better retain newly gained knowledge than reading and remembering. In our introductory molecular biology laboratory, 7.002, we developed this active learning module to unravel the essential features of our lab plasmid and to increase the readiness of the students towards our experimental goals. We also extended the hypotheses of their lab project about site-directed protein mutagenesis to the rise of new COVID19 variants. Students work on multiple online open-sourced tools, such as ORFfinder and BLAST, and research on databases, such as GenBank and UniProt, to find supporting proofs to their predictions of genes and mutations occurrences. Towards the end of the activity, students evaluate their predictions and observe two unexpected results – a ribosomal frameshift that occurs mainly in viruses and a combo indel and silent mutation – which may spark their curiosity to practice science and motivate their interests in performing lab work.

Keywords:  Gene Predictions, Genetic Mutations, COVID19 Variants, Online Database, Bioinformatics Tools

University of Maryland (2024)