D. Grant Willhite

Bio: D. Grant Willhite is an academic researcher from Tennessee Wesleyan College. The author has contributed to research in topics: Lipid raft. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 8 citations.

Promoting inquiry-based teaching in laboratory courses: are we meeting the grade?

Abstract: Over the past decade, repeated calls have been made to incorporate more active teaching and learning in undergraduate biology courses. The emphasis on inquiry-based teaching is especially important in laboratory courses, as these are the courses in which students are applying the process of science. To determine the current state of research on inquiry-based teaching in undergraduate biology laboratory courses, we reviewed the recent published literature on inquiry-based exercises. The majority of studies in our data set were in the subdisciplines of biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, and molecular biology. In addition, most exercises were guided inquiry, rather than open ended or research based. Almost 75% of the studies included assessment data, with two-thirds of these studies including multiple types of assessment data. However, few exercises were assessed in multiple courses or at multiple institutions. Furthermore, assessments were rarely based on published instruments. Although the results of the studies in our data set show a positive effect of inquiry-based teaching in biology laboratory courses on student learning gains, research that uses the same instrument across a range of courses and institutions is needed to determine whether these results can be generalized.

The Lipid Raft Proteome of African Trypanosomes Contains Many Flagellar Proteins.

Abstract: Lipid rafts are liquid-ordered membrane microdomains that form by preferential association of 3-β-hydroxysterols, sphingolipids and raft-associated proteins often having acyl modifications. We isolated lipid rafts of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei and determined the protein composition of lipid rafts in the cell. This analysis revealed a striking enrichment of flagellar proteins and several putative signaling proteins in the lipid raft proteome. Calpains and intraflagellar transport proteins, in particular, were found to be abundant in the lipid raft proteome. These findings provide additional evidence supporting the notion that the eukaryotic cilium/flagellum is a lipid raft-enriched specialized structure with high concentrations of sterols, sphingolipids and palmitoylated proteins involved in environmental sensing and cell signaling.

Site-Directed Mutagenesis Study of an Antibiotic-Sensing Noncoding RNA Integrated into a One-Semester Project-Based Biochemistry Lab Course

Abstract: A laboratory sequence is described that is suitable for upper-level biochemistry or molecular biology laboratories that combines project-based and traditional laboratory experiments. In the project-based sequence, the individual laboratory experiments are thematically linked and aim to show how a bacterial antibiotic sensing noncoding RNA (the ykkCD riboswitch) recognizes its target antibiotic, tetracycline. The novelty of the curriculum lies in its extensive coverage of bioinformatics as well as its focus on synthesis, purification, and functional studies of a biologically active RNA. Further advantage of the curriculum is that the model system, the ykkCD riboswitch, regulates expression of a gene that is involved in bacterial antibiotic resistance. Hence, the project makes this important issue part of the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. The curriculum is available in Open Access format as part of a biochemistry laboratory manual by Gerczei and Pattison. This manuscript summarizes the curriculum a...