MCB 221D: Cell Biochemistry - Winter 2008.

Course Coordinator:
Jonathan Scholey,
Professor of Cell Biology and Biochemistry,
Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Email: jmscholey@ucdavis.edu

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday 12:10-1:30 pm, 1342 Storer

Discussion Session: Fridays 12:10-1 pm, 1342 Storer

Grading: Each instructor’s section will have a problem set and/or term paper associated with it.
There are no mid-term or final exams.

A. Molecular Basis of Motility and Mitosis (Jon Scholey)
January: T.8. Protein Machines and the Physical Nature of the Intracellular Environment.
Th.10. Force generation by motor-polymer systems.
T.15. Intracellular transport Systems. Motor Proteins and Single Molecule Assays.
Th. 17. Intraflagellar transport and Cilium-based Signaling
T. 22. Mechanism of Mitosis: Spindle assembly and chromosome segregation.

B. The Cell Cycle and Signal Transduction (Frank McNally)
Th. 24. Oscillation of MPF: cdks and ubiquitin ligases.
T. 29. The metaphase-anaphase transition and the spindle checkpoint.
Th. 31. Mitotic Exit.
February: T. 5. S-phase entry in Budding Yeast.
Th. 7. S-phase entry in Mammals and Checkpoints.

C. Membranes and Organelle Biogenesis (Jodi Nunnari and Dan Starr)
T. 12. Membrane structure and biophysics
Th. 14. Protein Translocation into organelles
T. 19. Endocytosis
Th. 21. Secretory Pathways
T. 26. Regulation of Organelle Structure and Dynamics

D. Metabolic Regulation and Signal Transduction (Ted Powers)
Th. 28. Principles and overview of cell signaling
March T. 4. Specificity in signaling: dissection of MAPK pathways
Th. 6. Metabolic signaling in yeast and higher eukaryotes
T. 11. Re-wiring and modeling of signaling pathways: what we learn
Th. 13. Membranes, signaling, and inter-organelle communication