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To fully appreciate genetics, one must understand the link between genotype (DNA sequence) and phenotype (observable characteristics). Advances in high-throughput genomic sequencing technologies and applications, so-called "-omics," have made genetic sequencing readily available across fields in biology from applications in non-traditional study organisms to precision medicine. Thus, understanding these tools is critical for any biologist, especially those early in their career. This comprehensive review discusses the chronological development of different sequencing methods, the bioinformatics steps to analyzing this data, and social and ethical issues raised by these techniques that must be discussed and evaluated, including anticipatory guides and discussion questions for active engagement in the classroom. Additionally, the Supporting Information includes a case study to apply technical and ethical concepts from the text.

To fully appreciate genetics, one must understand the link between genotype (DNA sequence) and phenotype (observable characteristics). Advances in high-throughput genomic sequencing technologies and applications, so-called "-omics," have made genetic sequencing readily available across fields in biology from applications in non-traditional study organisms to precision medicine. Thus, understanding these tools is critical for any biologist, especially those early in their career. This comprehensive review discusses the chronological development of different sequencing methods, the bioinformatics steps to analyzing this data, and social and ethical issues raised by these techniques that must be discussed and evaluated, including anticipatory guides and discussion questions for active engagement in the classroom. Additionally, the Supporting Information includes a case study to apply technical and ethical concepts from the text.

Metazoan transcriptional regulatory factors (TFs) bind to genomic response elements and assemble with co-regulators into transcriptional regulatory complexes (TRCs) whose composition, structure and activities are gene-, cell- and physiological-context specific. Each TRC is a “regulatory logic module,” integrating incoming signaling information, which defines context and thereby recruits a distinct combination of co-regulators that together specify outgoing regulatory activity. Analyzing TRCs unique to every context is daunting, yet justified by their properties as self-contained regulatory modules. As proof-of-concept, we performed a forward genetic screen inC. eleganscarrying a synthetic simple response element for nuclear receptor NHR-25 upstream of a fluorescent reporter gene. We isolated independent mutations inuba-2, a component of the sumoylation signaling machinery, and inlir-2, which we demonstrated to be a novel co-regulator, interacting with NHR-25 through LxxLL motifs and modulating target gene expression. Our studies establish that an unbiased genetic screen readily identifies both afferent and efferent components that specify TRC function, and suggest that screening natural response elements of interest could illuminate molecular mechanisms of both context-specificity and transcriptional regulation.

Disrupting a gene to determine its effect on an organism's phenotype is an indispensable tool in molecular biology. Such techniques are critical for understanding how a gene product contributes to the development and cellular identity of organisms. The explosion of genomic sequencing technologies combined with recent advances in genome-editing techniques has elevated the possibilities of genetic manipulations in numerous organisms in which these experiments were previously not readily accessible or possible. Introducing the next generation of molecular biologists to these emerging techniques is key in the modern biology classroom. This comprehensive review introduces undergraduates to CRISPR/Cas9 editing and its uses in genetic studies. The goals of this review are to explain how CRISPR functions as a prokaryotic immune system, describe how researchers generate mutations with CRISPR/Cas9, highlight how Cas9 has been adapted for new functions, and discuss ethical considerations of genome editing. Additionally, anticipatory guides and questions for discussion are posed throughout the review to encourage active exploration of these topics in the classroom. Finally, the supplement includes a study guide and practical suggestions to incorporate CRISPR/Cas9 experiments into lab courses at the undergraduate level. © 2018 The Authors Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(2):195-205, 2018.