Final exam study session

Audio recording of the study session

We'll start out by reviewing the Exams page info, follow up with the study guide (below) and any further questions you might have.

Study guide

So, first, let's take a broad look at the structure of this part of the course. In lectures 18-21, we picked back up with phylogenetic analysis from the first part of the course. Previously we ended with the analysis of cultivated organisms and what the tree of them told us about life. Here we pick up on the analysis of uncultivated organisms and progress to surveys of microbial populations, then how to link this information up with ecological processs. After this we have and will spend our time (lectures 22-26) discussing a variety of aspects of microbial biology showing that Bacteria (and Archaea) are in their own way every bit as sophisticated as eukaryotes, and a lot more like them than is usually recognized.

My advice is to split the lectures into three components and outline & study them separately: the techniques, the papers, and the concepts.

Techniques
Start by making a list of the critical techniques: FISH, 16S rRNA surveys, 454 sequencing, DGGE, t-RFLP, SIP, metagenomics, FROS, &c. Some of these we talked about (or at least I put it in the notes) in great detail, some only superficially. You should be able to describe the basics of all of these, and the details of one of each type (i.e one from each lecture).

Papers
Start by making a list of all of the papers, and then tease out (and know) the basics for each: purpose, approach, results, and conclusion. Then choose representatives (how many might depend on your study time priorities) to know in detail - about the same details as is provided in the lecture notes. Use the papers themselves (I give you links to these) only to help you understand these points. Remember that there are two papers on the "required readings" list - studying these should amount to nothing more than reading them.

Concepts
These papers weren't chosen at random - they're here to contribute toward the broad perspective of the course. What do these papers tell you about "Microbial Diversity"? The first few lectures deal in increasing sophistication with the use of molecular phylogenetics to study microbial populations and diversity - know where these fit in to the figure of molecular phylogenetic analysis shown at the beginning of lecture 18. Other concepts appear in the introductions to each lecture or paper, or in "asides" (such as the discussion about horizontal transfer in lecture 22). Mostly, these deal with the meaning of the papers from the phylogenetic perspective.

Lastly, if time permits, it would be a good idea to go through the "Questions for Thought" at the end of each lecture. Some of these are more-or-less readily answered, some are tough, and many have no real answer at all. Remember - questions are just as important (more, in my opinion) than answers.