After reading the material for this week, please respond to one of the bullet points below using information from the readings along with other references you have found:
Catabolic pathways break down substrates for use by the cell – pick one of the catabolic pathways and carry out some background research; what are the inputs and outputs of the pathway? Are the inputs coming from other pathways, or are they scavenged by the cell? Are the intermediates used in any other processes? How ubiquitous is this pathway?
Anabolic processes are endothermic – where does the energy and raw materials come from to synthesize the major constituents of a cell? Pick a specific anabolic pathway, carry out some background research and describe the necessary inputs, the major reaction steps and the resulting cellular products. How ubiquitous is this pathway? Are the intermediates used in any other processes?
How does a cell control its metabolic flux? Which control mechanism would be used in the production of ethanol by yeast? Why does a cell need to control its metabolism? What happens if you remove some of these control mechanisms?
After reviewing this week’s material, describe the genetic engineering process that would lead to the creation of GloFish http://www.glofish.com What would you change if you only wanted to brain or the heart to glow? Include a reference which supports your change.
Describe the process you would use to produce vegan cheese from bacteria, if you know the gene sequence for casein and you have a supply of wild-type E. coli and/or yeast. What would be the differences between cheese production this way and real cheese production?
What are the advantages to using prokaryotic as host systems for genetic engineering? What are the limitations to genetic engineering in prokaryotes? Are these limitations addressable in single cell eukaryotic systems? Give an example of bioproduction in each system.
link for class material; https://vimeo.com/12395598
