Homework and Readings

To be handed in at the beginning of class on 8/28.

Modules I: MAP kinase cascades: Yeast Mating and STE5 and STE11 genes.

STE11 paper: "Constitutive mutants of the protein kinase Ste11 activate the yeast pheromone response pathway in the absence of the G protein" Genes and Development 6, 1293-1304. 1992

Ste5 paper: "STE5 tethers multiple kinases in the MAP kinase cascade required for mating in S.cerevisiae" Cell 78, 499-512.1994

These two papers are not available online but I have made pdfs that you should be able to retrieve. The pdfs are adequate but not the greatest. One figure in the Ste11 paper ("halo assay", Fig 1) did not scan well, so you won't be able to intrepret that one. I will do it for you.

You are only required to read one of the two assigned papers. IN FACT, ITS BEST IF YOU READ ONLY ONE, THEN COME AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE OTHER ONE FROM PRESENTATION ONLY. Be ready to present figures to the rest of the class on your assigned paper. You may be asked to stand up and do it, so be ready! But be relaxed...

Reviews:

You can read these two reviews as you have time during the course of the 3-4 week session on Map kinases. Probably after the 1st week they will be easier to take in. The first one I find a lot more informative than the second one. The figures in the second one are useful, but the text has too many details and not enough generalities! I feel that many reviews are plagued by this problem--they make them so "informative" to a field as to be impenetrable, and thus not informative, to many others who are interested but not officiendos (experts).

Principles of MAP Kinase Signaling Specificity in Saccharyomces cerevisiae. Schwartz and Madhani. Ann Rev Genet. 2004 38: 725-48.

Scaffold proteins in MAP kinase signaling: more than simple passive activating platforms. Dard and Peter. BioEssays:28, 146. 2006.

HOMEWORK
1. Read you assigned paper.

For this first paper, please write 1-4 sentences for each figure, telling yourself what that figure means. You will hand in this description.

Also for this first paper, I ask you do a more conventional write up. Write less than 2 pages, providing a description of what the question was in the paper you read, and what a few key observations are. Note KEY observations only. You have to make a judgement about what is central and key, and what is more peripheral. You can also note anything you found especially cool.

PLEASE type your answers so they are easy to read. THANK YOU. If you don't type them, I will give the paper back to you and ask that you type it.

NOTE:

Future homeworks will often have you writing a page or so on what your paper is about, and a 2nd, shorter paragraph on what you learned, were impressed about, etc from the presentation of the paper you did not read.

Thus, you best take some notes on the paper you did not read to assist you in writing this paragraph.

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