User talk:Jodymao/sandbox

Assignment 1: Critique a Wikipedia Article- "Heterotroph"
On its talk page, the article is labeled under both the field of “Ecology” and “Molecular and Cellular Biology”, which highlights the importance of this term, “heterotroph”, within the scope of these two fields. It is great that the article attempts to approach the term from both an ecological and a molecular biology perspective. However, very often, the author draws and mixes the concepts from two fields. For example, in the third paragraph, when distinguishing heterotroph vs. autotroph, the author starts and ends with ecological concepts: trophic levels and food chain. Confusingly, in the middle of the paragraph, the author mentions the concept of carbon source and metabolism, which is more of a cellular biology concept. When the concepts are mixed use, the readers will get confused, and fail to understand the concept in any of the field. Rather than covering the knowledge in two fields, both fields actually become underrepresented in this article.

In order to resolve confusions, it should be mentioned clearly in the introduction that, in cellular biology, heterotroph is classified based on the type of carbon source, whereas in ecology, “heterotroph” usually refers to chemoorganoheterotroph. In addition, it might be a good idea to start a new “history” section right after introduction, to elaborate on how the complexity rises from its historical origin.

Since this article is about “heterotroph”, it should include more detailed and accurate description about the ranges of organisms that fall in this category, and the types of metabolisms performed by them. Jodymao (talk) 06:37, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Assignment 2: Choose an Article- "Quorum Sensing"
This article is rated as “high importance” by the Wiki community. It describes an important biology concept “Quorum Sensing”.

“Quorum Sensing” is topic with broad spectrum, as it is related to not only bacteria, but also archaea and eukaryotic cells. The concept of quorum sensing is critical in understanding intercellular communication on a molecular level. The article is, therefore, with high notability, as it covers a range of subtopics, and is important in the scope of molecular biology.

I will focus on the “Bacteria” section. This section specifies quorum sensing in bacteria. In terms of citations, the section uses various peer-reviewed journal articles. Many of the source articles are well cited by researchers in the field, and have considerably high credibility. The introduction part, and the “mechanism” subpart of this section is heavily drawn on this one article, “Quorum Sensing in Bacteria”. This article is cited for more than 3000 times, and is newly published in 2001. While it is a great article, it mainly focuses on the mechanism of quorum sensing, and provides a lot of specific details. This results in the Wikipedia section solely focusing on the mechanisms, and having too many technical details.

The Wikipedia section does not describe how quorum sensing may lead to change in phenotypes of bacteria. Phenotypes include virulence factors, bioluminescence, motility and biofilm. The section slightly touches on some of the phenotypes, but it needs to be further elaborated. For example, in the case of biofilm formation, quorum sensing is critical for biofilm maturation, by controlling the proximity of the cells. These phenotypes can have important implications, such as antibiotic resistance, which may be the readers’ interests.

The problem with having too many details is that, readers are hard to grasp a clear big picture. Right now, the section is divided based on specific species of the bacteria. This structure avoids generalized conclusions, but at the same time, it is very easy to confuse the readers. I suggest to divide the section based on major types of quorum sensing (Gram-positive vs. Gram-negative, two-component signaling or not).

Jodymao (talk) 08:56, 27 September 2017 (UTC)