Bacterial cellobiose metabolism: An inquiry-driven, comprehensive undergraduate laboratory teaching approach to promote investigative learning.

Abstract

Technique-centered biochemistry or molecular biology undergraduate laboratory curricula do not offer significant opportunities for thoughtful, in-depth exploration of the science to foster investigative learning. To demonstrate inclusion of inquiry-driven laboratory experiments into the undergraduate biochemistry and molecular biology curricula, a comprehensive set of laboratory experiments, covering several principles of biochemistry and molecular biology, have been developed under a single theme. The laboratory curriculum described here comprehensively investigates bacterial cellobiose metabolism using multiple biochemical, molecular biological (RNA isolation, RT-PCR, PCR, and enzyme assay), and analytical techniques (High Performance Liquid Chromatography, NMR, spectrophotometry, and thin-layer chromatography) to explore the principles of metabolomics and genomics in a single undergraduate laboratory course setting using Caulobacter crescentus as the model organism. This laboratory module serves as a model for educators to develop easy-to-implement laboratory curricula incorporating contemporary biochemistry and molecular biology concepts and techniques to provide a course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) with defined learning objectives. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(4):438-445, 2019.