[
International Worm Meeting,
2003]
MOL 101: From DNA to Human Complexity is an introductory undergraduate science course with a laboratory component designed for the non-science major. The students taking this course range from freshman to seniors. This lecture and laboratory course acquaints students with the theory and practice of modern molecular biology, with a focus on biological topics of current public interest. Within the laboratory component of MOL101, we have developed a two-week laboratory exercise that uses C. elegans to illustrate the concepts of reverse genetics and the use of model organisms to understand and investigate human disease. The C. elegans lab follows directly after a two-week lab that examines Drosophila embryonic mutations using Drosophila embryo cuticle preps to illustrate the concepts of forward genetics and the genetic control of development. These two labs work well together and allow the student to compare development and basic biological functions in two separate organisms.We have developed a protocol that enables the students to work with C. elegans without requiring the manipulation of nematodes with a worm pick. Prep work for the lab includes an egg prep with subsequent hatching on unseeded plates. Students are then able to add L1 starvation-arrested worms to the bacterial RNAi plates after washing with M9 buffer. In this way, one large egg prep can be made and used for multiple lab sections. The students are given 5 different bacterial cultures and a brief description of the genes that are being targeted by RNA interference. We chose a variety of phenotypes, including an unc, a bag-of-worms, a larval arrest, and an embryonic lethal phenotype. We are able to time the experiments so that students can observe the worms exactly one week after setting up the experiments. In the second laboratory section, students are provided with a checklist of characteristics and behaviors with which to examine each plate. Through observation of the resulting RNAi phenotypes they are asked to make predictions about the identity of each gene, and to further relate the gene and phenotype to the study of human biology and disease.