Assignment: Organism Physiology

Assignment: Organism Physiology

Each Individual will draw an organ system at random and write a 800-1100 word paper on discussing the basic functions of the organ system, major organs its normal physiology, three common diseases, their causes, and a minimum of two types of treatment.

My organ is ” urinary ”

Let me know if that makes sense?

Insects are novel model organisms to examine human diseases and to establish drug toxicity due to the conservation of their signaling pathways, energy metabolism and structural components with mammals. Furthermore, insects are cost-effective, easy to rear and time-efficient in the early steps of drug discovery and physiological processes investigation. For over 100 years, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been a powerful tool in genetic, behavioral and molecular biology studies. Beyond Drosophila, some other insects such as Galleria mellonella, Bombyx mori, Periplaneta americana, and Locusta migratoria have been used in biological, medical and environmental research (Stankiewicz et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2014; Soumya et al., 2017; Mikulak et al., 2018). In addition to these insect species, scientists have been recently searching for new model insects for studies in physiological and environmental studies.

During the last decade, the interest of scientists on the Coleoptera order increased, the richest order in the animal kingdom with approximately 400,000 species constituting almost 25% of all known animal life-forms and occupying most terrestrial environments (Stork et al., 2015). Beetles interact with plants and other organisms as well as dead and decaying biotic materials, thus playing a key role in natural and human-dominated ecosystems (McKenna et al., 2009). They have survived major floral and faunal disasters and several mass extinctions over their 300 million years of history (McKenna et al., 2016). Furthermore, many beetle species are serious pests in many areas of the world, leading to significant losses in the nutritional value of plants and agricultural products (Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium, 2008). Therefore, the sequencing of some beetle genomes has provided a powerful tool for revealing genomic innovations contributing to the evolutionary success of beetles and understanding of insecticide resistance mechanisms, the specificity and effectiveness of insecticides and biological agents, the interactions of host plants with microorganisms, and, finally, the development of new protection methods.

So far, 11 genomic sequences are available for 11 beetle species; among them, 7 have been published (McKenna, 2018). The first sequenced beetle genome was the red flour beetle, T. castaneum, an important pest of agricultural products (Tribolium Genome

Sequencing Consortium, 2008). The T. castaneum genome contains large expansions of odorant receptors, gustatory receptors, and genes putatively involved in detoxification, which reflects the ability of the pest to interact with a diverse chemical environment. Some developmental processes of T. castaneum are more representative and comparable to those of mammals than those of Drosophila (Schroder et al., 2008). The ancestral genes involved in cell-to-cell communication expressed in the growth zone crucial for axial extension in short-term development make T. castaneum ideal for studying the evolution of development, such as segment specifications (Von Dassow et al., 2000) or multilevel selection (Goodnight, 2005). Genetic knowledge, and, in particular, easy genetic manipulations of gene expression RNA interference (RNAi) (Bucher et al., 2002; Knorr et al., 2018) at different stages of T. castaneum development make this beetle an even more valuable model in a number of research fields, for example, identification of targets for selective insect control. Currently, T. castaneum is a one of the most convenient genetic models for post-genomic studies such as RNA expression profiling, proteomics and functional genomics, mechanisms of insect immunity (Altincicek and Vilcinskas, 2007), gene–food interactions (Grunwald et al., 2013) or host–pathogen relationships (Milutinović et al., 2013).

A short time after the T. castaneum genome was sequenced, other beetle genomes were also sequenced; in 2013, the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, an important forest pest (Keeling et al., 2013), and in 2015, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, and the burying beetle, N. vespilloides, (Cunningham et al., 2015b; Vega et al., 2015) genomes were published. In their genomes, genes putatively involved in detoxification and plant cell wall degradation, as well as gene of bacterial sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase, with proposed relevance to digestive physiology have been found. Furthermore, it was found that the N. vespilloides genome has an active DNA methylation system and genes responsible for social behavior. The genomes of Oryctes borbonicus (Meyer et al., 2016) and Anoplophora glabripennis (McKenna et al., 2016) were published in 2016.

Of particular interest is the sequencing of the genome of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, one of the main pests that is difficult to manage, which has a special ability to adapt to solanaceous plants and changing environmental conditions (Schoville et al., 2018). The L. decemlineata genome analysis supports a rapid evolutionary change and confirms the genomic basis of phytophagy and insecticide resistance. It was found that L. decemlineata has evolved resistance to over 50 pesticides. Adaptations to plant nutrition have been observed in gene expansions that are putatively involved in digestion and detoxification, as well in gustatory receptors for bitter taste. The spectacular ability to exploit novel host plants and unusual resistance together with the newly released genome make L. decemlineata a good model system for agricultural pest genomics and developing sustainable methods to control this pest (Schoville et al., 2018).

Sequencing of genomes combined with the development of proteomic techniques such as mass spectrometry enables the understanding of the evolutionary and genomic basis of the biodiversity of beetles’ genomes and importantly, applying new technologies to the exploitation of beetle genomes for human purposes. However, the majority of beetles intensively developed in many research areas, e.g., Tenebrio molitor, Coccinella septempunctata, Poecilus cupreus and many others, still have unknown genomes. We suppose that it is only a matter of time because beetles are convenient and inexpensive animal models, invaluable for studying physiological processes during insect development and biomedical and pharmacological research between invertebrates and vertebrates.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource