A laboratory-based course introducing students to the techniques used to isolate and study nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). Emphasis will be placed on development of basic laboratory skills in the context of isolating, purifying and analyzing bacterial plasmids and genomic DNA, probing Southern blots for B-galactosidase coding sequences, DNA fingerprinting using restriction enzymes and PCR, and the isolation and detection of an mRNA and the protein it encodes.
Prerequisite: BIOL 313 and 335. BIOL 210/220/323/415 recommended.