TITLE:
Teaching Botany Using Bioinformatics Tools
AUTHORS:
Xiaorong Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Rubisco, Protein Structure and Function, Cn3D, Enzymatic Action, Molecular Phylogenetics, Plant Evolution
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.10,
October
14,
2019
ABSTRACT: Two laboratory activities are designed to reinforce several important concepts in General Botany
course, which is a required course for biology majors at Savannah State
University (SSU). The first activity requires students to study the
relationship between protein structure and function through
observing the 3D structure of Rubisco (ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase and
oxygenase)—the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of
the Calvin cycle for photosynthesis. This activity also helps students
understand the mechanism of enzymatic action through examining the
interaction of Rubisco with its cofactor, substrate, competitive inhibitor, and
product. The second activity is designed to help students grasp the concept of
plant evolution and phylogeny through analyzing the genetic sequences of Rubisco
collected from representative species and determining the evolutionary
relationships of these species using bioinformatics tools. Through these two laboratory
activities, several important topics are linked together, with Rubisco as a
common theme, so that students would develop a holistic and coherent view of
plant sciences. Furthermore, students would also gain several important
bioinformatics skills that they could use and apply in their future studies and
careers.