Assignment:
Talking Points for Introduction
Before anything else, the first page should have a Title of your paper. You should have a title when you turn in this Introduction. This need not be the final title. You can change it later. A title should...
Not be vague and too general.
Not be too verbose and long.
Have some key words, like Drosophila, development, the name of your gene, a key function of the gene, maybe.
Have proper capitalization. Here are examples.
Introduction. This is the really first major section of the eventual review. An introduction starts with a very general background, and then ‘funnels' the reader toward a more specific subject.
1. Start this section with a heading. Probably the heading will be.. Introduction in some sort of enhanced type. Bold, all caps, big letters - your choice. But the chosen style should be kept for other section headings in the "body" of the paper to follow.
2. Start by describing that Drosophila is a fruit fly & is useful for basic genetics research. Including genetics of development. Reasons:
a. Generation time.
b. Food used to raise in the lab.
c. Small genome (how many genes does Drosophila have?)
d. Existence of mutant and transgenic stocks.
e. Locate and cite some papers that provide the above. ((You should be citing papers from now on, w/o my telling you)). Use the Author, year format. See the "Some guidelines" document.
Note: ALWAYS write out Drosophila like that. Italics.
3. Briefly summarize Drosophila embryonic development. It can be more detailed in the Body of the paper where you describe more about the action of ‘your' gene during embryonic development.
a. Describe events and stages thru head involution. Early in this you will be citing a figure that shows the stages of embryonic development. This is Figure. You don't need to have Figure 1 now, since figures are put toward the back of the paper. See the "Some guidelines" document.
b. Describe hatching and development adult fly. Mention imaginal discs (look this up if you don't know). (( Note: Your gene may not really be "about" the embryo. It could be mainly used in the ovaries, where eggs develop, or in the imaginal discs or histoblasts, which are tissues that later form adult structures. If so, you really should focus on those. Good luck!))
4. For some (not all), your gene fits into a class of genes that you had learned about (maternal effect, homeotic, etc.). If so, then you should describe this general class and what it's about. Not everyone's gene fits into those classes. If you are not sure what to say on this, feel free to ask me.
5. Work in a narrative that explains your gene.
a. What your gene does during development of Drosophila.
b. Along the way you will of course provide the name of your gene, and its abbreviation. You are introducing your gene here, so you should know what that means from then on.
c. Describe major aspects of the biology of this gene. You can choose to describe the nature of its protein product. Or the mutant phenotypes. Lots of common points are brought up. For example, why is your gene given its name. Who first discovered (and named) the gene? How does the protein product work? This should not be an exhaustive description. You don't need to do all these things here since you want to set aside a larger portion for the ‘body' of the paper. So discover what there is to discover. Use some of it in the Intro, and set aside the rest (probably most of it) for the body. Remember to keep track of references, and to ‘steal' some pictures for later. Keep track of the source for those pictures, though, since you will need them!
6. State some reasons for this review.
a. Why is this gene important for Drosophila. How does that fit into the bigger picture of understanding animal development. For example, understanding the role of a segmentation gene contributes to our understanding of segmentation in animals, since most animals have a segmented body plan. Understanding the role of a gene needed for axial development, or nervous system development comes to the same argument.
b. Importance outside of Drosophila. What are important homologs in other species? Humans? Much like the above summary about the gene and its biology, you will be discovering a lot about this topic. More than what would go into the Intro. Use some basic points about this for the Intro, then set aside the larger and more detailed part for the body of the paper.