Teacher Resources

The following is a list of teacher resources that may be used in conjunction with this web page.  The following resources will provide links to microbial activities; PCR , Electrophoresis,  and Gene Sequencing simulations; as well as links for equipment and supply purchase.

The Biology of Bacteria

• BioInteractive is a virtual interactive lab dedicated to the simulation of microbial DNA identification. The purpose of the lab is to familiarize you with the science and techniques used to identify different types of bacteria based on their DNA sequence.
• Bacteria Museum is an organizational website containing general information on Bacterial Biology, as well as Bacterial Evolution, Pathogenic Bacteria and Medicine
• Introduction to Bacteria is a Berkeley University website that contains information on bacterial Fossils, Life History and Ecology, Systematics, and Morphology
• Digital Learning Center for Microbial Biology, a Michigan State University website, contains a Microbe Zoo, Microbe of the Month, Curious Microbes (bacteria living in extreme environments), Microbe News, Microbe Ecology, and bacteria Scientists
• Cells Alive contains information on Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, Microscopy, Cell Models, and a cell gallery
• MicrobeWorld is a website of the American Society of Microbiology that contains information about the Microbe World, Microbe Education, and activities for Solving Microbe Mysteries

Mitochondrial DNA Information

• The Dolan DNA Learning Center website provides information about Mitochondrial DNA which is used to determine phylogenetic relationships among organisms.

Cladistics Information

• The Compleat Cladist is a primer of phylogenetic procedures.  The first edition of the book is available free in a portable document format that can be read by and printed from Adobe Acrobat reader.

Tools for Gene Sequencing Comparisons

• Chromas is a program  that reads the output from a Gene Sequencer. This program provides nucleotide sequences of DNA run on a polyacrylamide sequencing gel.
• PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 12 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. This site provides links to bacterial genomes.
• The NCBI Genbank website provides a vast array of sequenced genomes of different organisms.
• The NCBI Blast Program  will search a large database of microbial genomes to identify unknown genetic sequences. A Blast Search will  link sequences from the BLAST results page to the NCBI LocusLink and UniGene databases.
• Clustal W is a general purpose multiple sequence alignment program for DNA or proteins. It produces biologically meaningful multiple sequence alignments of divergent sequences.
• PHYLIP is a free package of programs for inferring phylogenies. It is distributed as source code, documentation files, and a number of different types of executables. The analysis of genetic sequences by PHYLIP is based on shared derived characters and the result is a parsimony tree.

Simulations

• The following site on Gel Electrophoresis provides a wealth of information about agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA. This site also provides an excellent simulation of the process.
• The Principle of Sequencing website provide information on how to read agarose gels, and how cycle sequencers work.
• The American  Museum of Natural History PCR Simulation website provides excellent information on polymerase chain reactions.

Equipment, Supply and Kit Purchase

• Biorad  Biotechnology Explorer program was designed to help teachers bridge the gap between science in the classroom and technology in the real world. Biorad provides biotechnology kits specifically to be used in the classroom.
• Invitrogen provides molecular biology products and kits for your biotechnology needs.
• Carolina Biological is a world class support and supply center for science and math.
• Qiagen provides molecular biology products and kits for your biotechnology needs.
• Wards Biological  has been a leader in the supply of science education materials for 140 years.  This website will provide a wealth of tools, tips, ideas, and answers to enhance your science learning experience.
• Millipore provides products for research and manufacturing within the areas of genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

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