Gail S. Begley

A conserved motif within the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase gene is widely distributed across animal phyla

The vitamin K-dependent γ-glutamyl carboxylase catalyzes the posttranslational conversion of glutamic acid to γ-carboxyglutamic acid, an amino acid critical to the function of the vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation proteins. Given the functional similarity of mammalian vitamin K-dependent carboxylases and the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase fromConus textile, a marine invertebrate, we hypothesized that structurally conserved regions would identify sequences critical to this common functionality. Furthermore, we examined the diversity of animal species that maintain vitamin K-dependent carboxylation to generate γ-carboxyglutamic acid. We have cloned carboxylase homologs in full-length or partial form from the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), toadfish (Opsanus tau), chicken (Gallus gallus), hagfish (Myxine glutinosa), horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), and cone snail (Conus textile) to compare these structures to the known bovine, human, rat, and mouse cDNA sequences. Comparison of the predicted amino acid sequences identified a nearly perfectly conserved 38-amino acid residue region in all of these putative carboxylases. In addition, this amino acid motif is also present in theDrosophila genome and identified a Drosophilahomolog of the γ-carboxylase. Assay of hagfish liver demonstrated vitamin K-dependent carboxylase activity in this hemichordate. These results demonstrate the broad distribution of the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase gene, including a highly conserved motif that is likely critical for enzyme function. The vitamin K-dependent biosynthesis of γ-carboxyglutamic acid appears to be a highly conserved function in the animal kingdom.

Making Connections: Service-Learning in Introductory Cell and Molecular Biology

This report describes service-learning in a first-year majors biology course in which students serve throughout the semester with community partners for an average of 25 hours/student. All of the partnerships are based on providing engaging hands-on biology activities for youth in underserved urban areas surrounding the campus. Students in the course have designed new lessons and activities, supported biology labs, mentored younger students, and facilitated afterschool science clubs. Throughout the course, integration between the students’ service experience in the community and their learning in the course is emphasized. This is accomplished in multiple ways including class discussion, group activities, feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant, and weekly blogs. A three-year average of anonymous university-wide course evaluations suggested that students in this service-learning course considered their biology course to be highly rigorous. In both blogs and anonymous surveys students reported that their service and its integration with the course not only advanced their professional skills and sense of community engagement, but also enhanced their learning in biology.

Vision and Change–ing A First-Year Biology Classroom

In the recent report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action , the American Association for the Advancement of Science laid out a blueprint for reforming undergraduate biology education. A key component of the vision is ensuring that all students understand certain core concepts that are necessary for biological literacy, and that they are able to demonstrate a set of core competencies in disciplinary practice. The core concepts and competencies were integrated into every aspect of a first year Inquiries in Biology course at Northeastern University. This course is offered to students majoring in Biology, Biochemistry, and Behavioral Neuroscience who have Advanced Placement credit for General Biology. The class is small (35 students), and is organized largely in a seminar format with no textbook and very minimal lecturing. However, the integration strategies presented here should be applicable to larger classes, as well as classes that are more lecture-focused.

Using Elevator Speeches to Develop Research & Communication Skills in Biology

The process of writing a mock grant proposal has been incorporated into biology courses as a means of developing discipline-specific skills such as accessing the primary literature, generating hypotheses, and writing scientifically (1–5). An original grant proposal is a centerpiece of our required Biology Capstone course, which also focuses on mastery of written and oral science communication competencies described in Vision and Change: A Call to Action (6). Students are asked to generate a research proposal based on their undergraduate research experience or interests. Most Capstone students have good research experience, but even so, some aspects of the grant proposal are new and challenging. These include grounding the proposed research in previous work and choosing an appropriate methodology for the research design. In order to facilitate the development of these skills and provide practice in science communication, I require students to give a short, informal presentation (elevator speech) at three points in the research proposal process. The elevator speeches serve as a formative assessment of progress on the development of the research proposal, an opportunity for low-stakes feedback, and a chance to develop competency in science communication through the effective process of guided practice coupled with targeted feedback (7).