A Versatile Semester-Long Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience using Optogenetics and RNAi to Identify Genes Important for Synapse Function.

ABSTRACT: Compared to traditional teaching laboratory activities, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) can increase student engagement and confidence, improve scientific literacy, enhance critical thinking, and promote accessibility in STEM. Here we describe a versatile CURE for an upper-level Neurobiology course that incorporates genetic, molecular, cellular, and behavioral experiments into a semester-long investigation to identify genes important for glutamate synapse formation or function in C. elegans. Following introduction to the CURE approach and basic C. elegans techniques, students construct their own low-cost optogenetics rigs, which we describe in detail here, to activate a mechanosensory escape reflex via photostimulation. They then perform a small-scale

SUBMITTER: Luth ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10768823 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature