Download poor devils: the plight of the tamanian devils

“POOR DEVILS: THE PLIGHT OF THE TAMANIAN DEVILS”
THIS IS A WEEK-LONG GROUP PROJECT. YOU WILL STRENGTHEN YOUR SKILLS
IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

Research answers to biological questions using trusted sources of information.

Summarize research results.

Describe the causative agents of infectious diseases and how they may be linked to
cancer.

Describe how cells become cancerous.

Describe how the immune system fights off infectious diseases and cancer.

Describe what an MHC gene is and what its product does in the cell.

Describe in general terms the methods used to study the karyotype of a cell and compare
karyotypes to detect mutations.

Propose hypotheses to explain observations.

Examine data, reach conclusions, and evaluate the soundness of the claims made from
data.

Design a controlled experiment.

Evaluate the merit of different experimental designs, choose the best one for a given
situation, and justify your choice.

Extrapolate observations from one species to other species, taking species-specific
factors into consideration.
o
Use knowledge of molecular biology to guide conservation efforts.
Part I
All questions must be answered in Schoology. You may divide up the work by
student 1-4 as described, or you may work together on all questions.
Note: Microsatellites are the Variable Number Tandem Repeats that cause
restriction fragment length polymorphisms. This is the basis of DNA
fingerprinting.
You are NOT required to site your sources. You may use any trusted sources
you find. In fact, much of this knowledge has been acquired previously in this
class.
Part II
You do this as a group task on Schoology, instead of in class.
Part III
Complete the two questions on Schoology, as a group task.
Part IV
*You get a passage from the article; you are not meant to get the entire
article.
Again, you can divide the work or all work together.
Note: Part “a” represents all healthy devils. The karyotype of a healthy animal
looks like this. Part “b” represents all cancerous karyotypes from all affected
animals.
For letter “c”, be sure to compare each set of chromosomes that show any
anomalies between healthy and cancer cells. For example,
“If we compare chromosome 2 of a healthy cell and chromosome 2 of a cancer
cell, we learn that the cancerous cells are missing chromosome 2.”
Do this for each chromosome difference.
Part V SKIP
Part VI
Since you really can’t go wrong here, each group member should propose one
hypothesis.
Part VII
Here, you want to find out if there is genetic diversity in the MHC genes of the
devils. If there is, this supports the first hypothesis. If there is not, this supports
the second hypothesis.
Note: In gel electrophoresis, the length that the band traveled is important. Not
the band itself (ie: how bright or thick the band). It is a microarray that can tell
you more about the level of gene expression (over-expressed/ under expressed).
Part VIII to Part X Not doing this now.