Download Aquaporin IDI Prelab

INTERDISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATION (IDI)-CLASSROOM
Research-based Interdisciplinary
Science Education
CELL MEMBRANE WATER CHANNELS: INVESTIGATING THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF AQUAPORIN
PreLab Assignment
Everything will be written in your handouts. Complete the assignment below on this handout and be
prepared to submit it on Day 1 of this activity.
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Read Chapter 13.2 in your Silberberg textbook.
Complete online Connect prelab problem set (Aquaporin Prelab Problems).
1. Watch the second video (6 minutes) about Biomimetic Membranes for Water Purification found
here and answer the following questions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11RQ3N9uH1w
a. Why are the new water channels being developed referred to as biomimetic?
b. What specific proteins are used as models for these new synthetic water channels?
c. What do you think will be the biggest challenge to scaling this approach up for use
globally for tasks such as desalination?
2. Watch the second video (4 minutes) about protein structure found here and answer the following
questions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRFIMcxZNM
a. What are the basic building blocks of proteins?
b. What part of an amino acid is unique to each individual acid?
c. Name two hydrophobic amino acids. What is it about the structure that causes them to be
hydrophobic?
d. Illustrate primary structure of proteins by using two amino acids of your choice to form a
peptide bond.
e. Illustrate secondary structure of proteins by drawing an alpha helix and a beta sheet using
“noodle” representations.
f.
Describe Tertiary structure of proteins.
g. Describe Quaternary structure of proteins.
h. Beginning at the 2:30 mark to the end of the video, several examples of proteins are given.
Which of these examples was the most interesting to you?