Wikipedia talk:USEP/Courses/JHU MolBio Ogg FA13/Group 84E

Choosing an article: Individual assessment by Aconch (Cindy)
Hi Girum! To help us narrow down which article we should "claim" during this unit, I want to elaborate on some of the pages that I thought were promising:


 * 1) Biosynthesis: The reason that I liked this article is because the topic is fairly broad. This means that we could develop the Wikipedia article using varied examples. We could discuss the biosythesis of lipids, proteins, polysaccharides, and many others. Furthermore, the stub mentions the organelles involved in biosynthesis, but it does not expand on their specific roles; we could potentially develop this into one of the sections for our article, and possibly find some images to accompany our text. Lastly, the topic of biosynthesis would also give us a chance to talk about some pathways, and by extension, disorders/mutations that inhibit the pathway, and the consequences of this inhibition.


 * 2) Exoenzyme: My knowledge on exoenzymes is very limited, but the stub provides examples that can be developed into sections for the article. We could expand on each of the examples already listed in the stub by including their mechanisms of action. Additionally, these sections would be great places to include illustrations (for example, enzyme structures). Moreover, one of our last sections could be the consequences of having deficient/mutated exoenzymes.


 * 3) Chemical modification: This is an article that neither one of us assessed last week. Like the Biosynthesis article, the main reason that I'm drawn to this article is the broadness of its scope. We could talk about chemical modification of proteins, DNA, viruses etc. Additionally, one of our main sections can involve some of the history around chemical modification and notable scientists in this field. This article is particularly cool because we could potentially be exposed to different modification techniques that we haven't learned in previous classes. On the other hand, it may prove to be more difficult because depending on our laboratory and educational background, we might not understand the scientific papers.

Between these three suggestions, I prefer Biosynthesis the best. Although, I don't know a substantial amount on this topic, it's the one that I'm most familiar with. Consequently, I would have a better idea of how we could structure the article.

As a side note, once decide on and formally "claim" our article, would you be okay with us posting and editing our "group rationale summary" rough draft in this talk page, before we post the official summary on the talk page?

Thanks for listening! Aconch (talk) 21:07, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Choosing article: Part II (Girum)
Hello Cindy. Hope you are doing well

I read through your recommended articles and your reasons for selecting this articles. After I read your reasons, I performed a goggle scholar search to see how much relevant information is available on each topic.

When I goggled Chemical modification I noticed that there are review articles that talked about chemical modification to protons, starches, polymer surfaces, wood, silica surfaces, nanotubes, etc. What I realized is that the term “Chemical modification” could apply to any type of modification including substances that are not part of biological organisms. That means, reviewing this article would take us into inorganic chemistry topics, which is really not covered in this class. Therefore, I think it would be additional work for us (me specially) to learn the additional topics required for a thorough review of this article.

Your first and second choices, I think are more inline with the course material. I have written a primary evaluation on the exoenzyme article. My knowledge of exoenzymes is also limited. I understand that exoenzyme refers to proteins/enzymes that are excreted, mostly by bacteria, to breakdown polymers and make them more permeable through cell membrane. Goggle scholar search gives a list of interesting articles that review the topic.

The biosynthesis topic is fairly broad and would be interesting to work on. Much of the subject matter, I feel, would coincide with the course well. I think my choice would fall between exoenzymes and biosynthesis. However, for the reasons you mentioned and because of the abundance material available, I should agree with your first choice to work on the biosynthesis article.

Galemu2 (talk) 03:30, 15 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi Girum! That's fantastic that we were able to come to a consensus. I've gone ahead and claimed the article. Aconch (talk) 03:43, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Unit 7: Identifying key points for Biosynthesis article
Hi Girum,

I wanted to discuss some general key points that we should include in our article. Mainly, I think that we'll need to:
 * 1) Edit the introduction: I think that we need to reorganize it and include a general overview of the information that will be developed throughout the rest of the article.
 * 2) Add more examples: I like the idea of developing how DNA, carbohydrates, and lipids are synthesized. Each example may be its own section. These sections will also give us a chance to use information that we find from Pubmed articles, etc.
 * 3) Add a "conclusion" section: Looking at other Wikipedia articles, I noticed many good articles typically have a final section that highlights the importance of the topic at hand. Perhaps, we can note some of the problems that occur when some biosynthesis pathways are inhibited.
 * 4) Other key inclusions: We'll have to find images and links to incorporate into the article.

Since the listing of "key points" for our article is a team assignment, please feel free to additional key points onto this section. On an related note, I'm also going to start the initial work on our article in my sandbox; I'll start adding references and maybe some pictures that we can use. Talk to you soon! Aconch (talk) 22:16, 20 October 2013 (UTC)