Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/JHU MolBio Ogg 2012/Section 83/Group 83A

Group 83A
This is the Wikipedia page for 410.602 Molecular Biology, 2012, group 83A. This group will be working on the DNA polymerase article.

Use the talk page here to collaborate as a group, when learning to use and navigate Wikipedia, assessing articles, or for any other topic.

Use this page (not the talk page) for article assessments (optional, see Unit 5); rationale for selecting an article (Unit 6); progress reports (Units 9 and 12); and the final report (Unit 14). Please create a new section here for each of those assignments.

Article Justification
We have chosen to edit and update the DNA Polymerase Wikipedia article due to the “High Importance” placed on this article by the MCB WikiProject. Currently, the status of the article is rated as “Start Class” meaning that it has an overall grade below a C on the quality scale. The DNA Polymerase page has more information than a stub article but it lacks flow, clarity and numerous references. Finding and adding references should be a quick fix that will greatly enhance the article and the article’s credibility.

A good starting point will be to investigate further the suggestions from the talk page and implement those changes where appropriate. At first glance, we have also identified that the article lacks information on the functionality of the various DNA Polymerase subunits. In addition, there is significant information and research that can be added about the holoenzyme complex. We have also just learned about processivity of DNA Polymerase when interacting with clamp proteins and this vital information is missing from the article. The sections outlining the DNA Polymerase families lacks references, flow and connectivity. Additionally, these sections can be expanded to elaborate on the similarities, differences and research performed on the different families. While we do not want to duplicate the sections referencing Prokaryotic DNA polymerase and Eukaryotic DNA polymerase on other Wikipedia pages, we feel that sections could be included that outline any similarities and differences between the two types of polymerases.

We think that the DNA Polymerase page will allow us as a group to not only expand our knowledge on a very important subject in molecular biology, but the different needs of the page allow us to work on various functions within Wikipedia that will expand our overall knowledge of Wikipedia. Amy B., Amy H. and Aslaa.

Unit 9 Progress Report
We have divided the article into six different sections in order to focus on one issue at a time. Each of the group members is responsible for expanding and/or adding a new section. Points we are currently addressing include processivity of DNA polymerase, the different polymerase families and types of polymerases and expanding the functionality of the enzyme. We have started to add missing references and have also reviewed the comments on the talk page for our article to ensure that suggestions have been addressed or will be addressed in the final article.

As far as the remaining weeks, we have a full agenda. Our goal is to change the organizational scheme of the article entirely. Since the article seems to be missing a significant amount of information, we will be adding new headers and sections to the table of contents. We have discussed and designed a new organization system in order to add the missing information. Our plan at this time is to have headers for history, function/action, DNA polymerase families, Prokaryotic DNA polymerases and Eukaryotic DNA polymerases as well as headings for references and external links. Currently, the article completely lacks information on the history of DNA polymerase, so we plan to include a new section regarding the discovery and purification of DNA polymerase.

Furthermore, the section on functionality lacks subsections on the catalytic mechanism of DNA polymerase. One of the group members will be addressing that topic and adding a subsection for processivity and the mechanism of action. In the sections for eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA polymerases, the article provides links to the prospective pages but does not include any information regarding them. Our plan is to keep the two sections while addressing them in more detail. For the eukaryotic DNA polymerase, subsections will elaborate on the 15 different DNA polymerases including telomerase. As for the prokaryotic DNA polymerase, subsections will be headed with DNA polymerases I-V with at least a brief description of function and possible species information as well. We will be doing this in an effort to provide information that is not found on the Prokaryotic DNA polymerase or Eukaryotic DNA polymerase pages.

We have compiled data and information that has yet to be added to the article. We need to work on referencing and citing. Considering that we are all equally new to Wikipedia, this will be the most challenging part. We hope that interactions with other Wikipedia users and editors will be a source of help. Also, the different articles on our classroom page should be a great way to start. Amy B., Amy H. and Aslaa

Unit 12 Progress Report
We have made quite a bit of progress over the last few weeks toward accomplishing our aggressive restructure of the DNA polymerase article. Sections have been added for History, Variation among species, which includes a structure section, and Processivity. Significant contributions have been added to the Polymerase families in both Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes, however this has proved to be a tedious process as the literature review and referencing has been considerably more time consuming than expected.

We have been fortunate to have some great input from external editors and reviewers that have resulted in a cleaned up version of the introduction and many edits that help to concisely describe the facts we have added to the page. Additionally, we have received pertinent suggestions from our classmate that we will work to incorporate over the final weeks of the project.

On task to still complete is to further round out the history and family sections. Additionally we will try to make additions and changes that further incorporate the recommendations of the reveiwers, such as information regarding what is needed for the enzymatic reaction to occur. Interestingly, there has been feedback left on the article that could be addressed that might lead to a more complete article that addresses questions of individuals who have been directed to the article for specific information such as the type of enzyme DNA polymerase is.

We received great feedback from Group 83D and hope to incorporate some of their suggestions as we wrap up completion of the article over the next two week. Additionally, Amy H. provided feedback to Group 83E regarding their Nuclear Excision Repair article, suggesting considering adding and image for prokaryotic NER and clarifying information in the introduction regarding distortions of the DNA during NER.

Final Progress Report
During this semester we have successfully learned and navigated our way through the Wikipedia editing process. We believe that we have made big strides in the overall structure and content of the DNA polymerase page including the following:


 * Added 20 references
 * Added a history section
 * Added new sections on processivity and function
 * Created a table summarizing the DNA polymerase families
 * Reformatted the section on DNA polymerase families separating eukaryotic vs. prokaryotic polymerases
 * Significantly added content about each known polymerase
 * Included numerous wiki-links to other related topics to allow reader further comprehension on related topics

We wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without the help of other Wikipedia editors, our classmates' feedback, and of course Klortho for all of his patience and help. We have taken every idea proposed under consideration and added them to our overall plan of attack.