Educational Level:

Roadmap Objectives:

• • Article: “Naked Mole Rat’s Genetic Code Laid Bare” NPR piece. October 13, 2011 http://www.npr.org/2011/10/13/141313080/-re-exposed-naked-mole-rat-genome-sequenced
  • Content area/major concepts: This paper/article pair will help set tone for utility of exploring extreme animals to help us understand ‘normal’ and could be used at the very beginning of the semester.
    
    genomes, genes, genome sequencing, species, lineages, comparative analysis
    
    naked mole rat ecology and social organization, challenges that drive specialization,
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: whole genome sequencing (shot-gun sequencing)
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: concept map the information thinking about implications for physiology
  • Biggest teaching challenge: may not see links out to other animals and physiology, in general.
• • Article: Kim, EB et al (2011) Genome sequencing reveals insights into physiology and longevity of the naked mole rat.
  • Content area/major concepts: genomes, genes, genome sequencing, thermoregulation, positive selection of genes, SNPs, transposons, species, lineages,
    
    transcriptome, synteny
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: shot-gun sequencing, in vitro transcription, alignments, lineage assignments, gene annotation,
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: Concept map introduction, annotate figures (1, 2)
  • Biggest teaching challenge: As a whole paper, it contains a lot of molecular biology and genetics that we will likely never touch again in the course, in any detail.
• • Article: “No Acid Burn for Naked Mole Rats” From Science Now, December 15, 2011. (http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/no-acid-burn-for-naked-mole-rats.html).
  • Content area/major concepts: This paper/article pair will help students review basic sensory physiology concepts, add new specific example, and it will illustrate the power of comparative genetics. It will be used in week 5 of the semester.
    
    sensory system anatomy and physiology, peripheral nervous system, sensory receptor cell anatomy, model organism, action potentials, voltage-gated Na+ channels
    
    nociception
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: electrophysiology, gene alignments, molecular biology,
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: cartoon the sensory system (from stimulus to spinal cord)
  • Biggest teaching challenge:
• • Article: Smith, ES et al (2011) The molecular basis of acid insensitivity in the African naked mole-rat.
  • Content area/major concepts: sensory system anatomy and physiology, peripheral nervous system, sensory receptor cell anatomy, action potentials, voltage-gated Na+ channels, transduction, lineages, and species
    
    pain pathways, acid-sensing channels (ASICs and TRPV1), voltage-clamp, ATP as chemical messenger at synapses, pharmacological tools to characterize channels,
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: electrophysiology, gene alignments, expression systems, dose-response experiment, molecular biology, expression systems, sequencing of transcripts,
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: cartoon methods and annotate parts of figures (Figures 2, 4), transform data (Figure 2 (?), Figure 4B-D)
  • Biggest teaching challenge: this paper has a lot of electrophysiology in it with techniques that we don’t talk about a lot in the class
• • Article: Smith E et al (2012) Specific paucity of unmyelinated C-fibers in cutaneous peripheral nerves of the African naked-mole rat: comparative analysis using six species of Bathyergidae.
  • Content area/major concepts: This paper will help students appreciate structure function and provide a more complete description of acid-sensing along with paper pair #2. This paper can follow shortly after paper pair #2.
    
    sensory system anatomy and physiology, pain pathways, peripheral nervous system, sensory receptor cell anatomy, skin anatomy, cell-cell adhesion, cytoskeleton, epithelial sheets, lineages and species
    
    pain pathways, cytoskeletal details and beta catenin,
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: transgenic mice, electron microscopy, image analysis
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: concept map paper introduction, annotate figure, analyze data
  • Biggest teaching challenge: unfamiliarity with skin and cytoskeletal proteins, choosing figures to focus on,
• • Article: Johansen K et al., (1976) Blood respiratory properties in the naked mole rat Heterocephalus glaber, a mammal of low body temperature.
  • Content area/major concepts: This paper will reinforce concepts discussed in class regarding hemoglobin structure and function within the context of a specialized animal. This paper will be used in week 10 of the semester within the respiratory physiology unit.
    
    hemoglobin, 2,3-DPG, Hb-O2 equilibrium curves, Bohr effect, temperature effects on Hb-O2 binding, CO2 effects on Hb-O2 binding, enthalpy, pH
    
    hematocrit, methods for measuring and quantifying Hb-O2 saturation
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: protein isolation and quantitation from blood, spectrophotometry, protein stripping, O2-Hb binding assays
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: translate sentence, transform data (Table 1), annotate figure (Figure 1).
  • Biggest teaching challenge: there are a lot of specialized methods and calculations that the students won’t be familiar with, some of the graphs use log-transformed data.
• • Article: LaVinka PC et al (2009) Extreme tolerance to ammonia fumes in African naked mole-rats: animals that naturally lack neuropeptides from trigeminal chemosensory nerve fibers.
  • Content area/major concepts: This paper will reinforce concepts discussed in class regarding sensory physiology within the context of renal physiology. This is an optional paper that should help students remember what was learned earlier in the semester. This paper will be used in week 15 of the semester following the excretory physiology unit
    
    sensory physiology, pain sensation, chemosensation, peripheral nervous system, sensory receptor cell anatomy, lineages and species, synaptic transmission, DRG,
    
    neuromodulatory peptides, trigeminal nerve and ganglia, c-fos, c-fos as a research tool, behavioral tasks (avoidance and discrimination),
  • Methods or technology used to obtain data: observation and evaluation of behavior, randomization, mazes, behavioral avoidance tasks, association training (odor discrimination), immunohistochemistry, light microscopy, microscopic analysis
  • How the CREATE strategy was used: concept map the introduction, cartoon some of the methods (c-Fos related), annotate Figure 5 or 6, cartoon next experiments and grant panel.
  • Biggest teaching challenge: animal models and understanding when it is appropriate to interchange them (rats and mice),

Advice for Using Module/Activity: