Flagella Regeneration – Data Analysis and Research Paper

You won't be expected to write up your microscopic studies of biological models. These studies, including practice with the microscope, were designed to hone your skills with a microscope and your observing skills. Such skills are critical to successful completion of our experiment on flagellar regeneration in Chlamydomonas. As is almost always the case, it is a good idea to think about your ultimate objective when starting to work on a project. That is why the write-up on data analysis and the research paper were placed here in the sequence.

For this third and final research paper, apply the principles and practices that have been emphasized through guidelines, examples, practice, and comments on previous work. Think carefully about how you plan each part of the paper. Below are listed some items that deserve special attention. Keep in mind that a complete paper must cover more than just the listed items.

• Appropriate content and style for each section of the paper
• Appropriate use of verb tense, grammar, spelling, paragraph organization when applicable
• Use precise and informative language – watch for vague statements or statements that are not clear
• The materials/methods should enable someone to (1) judge the scientific merit of the methods that you used to achieve your objectives and (2) permit one to apply any or all of your methods to another study
• As always, keep the materials/methods succinct because they are not the focus of the manuscript; however they must be complete and accurate (times, temperatures, pH, volumes concentrations)
• Describe a source of materials if the choice will likely affect the experimental outcome; when use of an item is implicit in a procedure (e.g., spectrophotometer, centrifuge, pipet, test tube) we don't specify the item
• Text of the results section should "walk" the reader through the findings; it should be comprehensive, but should focus particularly on those findings most relevant to the study's objectives
• Adhere to the universal form for figures and tables in manuscripts and make titles/captions informative so that each item could stand apart from the related text and still be understood
• To present the relationship between continuous variables we usually plot the data; review the resources on graphing; in particular, be sure to optimize presentation of the figure and do not leave the computer defaults "as is"
• When you write any number think about its significance, about your confidence in the quantity (significant figures), and about what it represents (physically meaningful units)
• Keep the original objectives in mind when you discuss the findings
• To discuss findings in depth you must discuss mechanisms and likely cause/effect relationships; be open to alternative explanations
• You must clearly distinguish between the two important concepts presented as background for this study – possible feedback regulation of tubulin synthesis as a regulatory mechanism; possible dynamic equilibrium between free and assembled tubulin in cells with stable flagella
• The abstract should present all of the relevant findings including (for a study this focused) a summary of quantitative and qualitative findings; support your statements with statistics if applicable
• Address the objectives at the beginning of the abstract, but briefly; revisit the objectives with a summary statement at the end
• The introduction should present the rationale behind the study, keeping in mind the nature of your intended readership
• There are many good approaches to an introduction; simply make sure that all of the information you include is relevant to the goal of fully acquainting the reader with the reasoning behind your choices – overall research, specific hypothesis, experimental model, methods
• It should be clear in the introduction how the experimental design accomplished its objectives

Honor code policy

Data for the first paper will be collected by the entire class, compiled, and made available on line. You may seek assistance from anyone in acquiring the raw data as a file or printout. Otherwise, no collaboration at all is permitted on this assignment, including the construction of figures and/or tables and the statistical analysis. Consult the instructor or a teaching assistant if you have trouble preparing a graph, understanding a concept, etc.

As always, the restriction applies to using any work by another student from a previous semester.

Important concepts

To facilitate discussion of your findings you may wish to review two very important concepts related to the regulation of biological processes. They are the concept of the steady state that results from such regulation, and the concept of feedback inhibition, which is one of the most common and readily identifiable regulatory processes.