I've retained a few from previous years that are still informative.
A. Yes, this course was formerly known as "Developmental Biology," and contains much the same material as many courses called "Developmental Biology." The name change is really a matter of "truth in advertising" -- since the course covers NO plant development at all, and only very little of development of simpler non-animal organisms. Also, prior to the publication of the most recent edition of the textbook (Gilbert, 6th Edition, 2000), which now includes a single chapter on plant development, there was nothing in our text about plants. Plant development could be its own semester-long course; such a course may be 'developed' in the future.
A. Yes, the reading can be difficult. That is why I have tried to pare it down somewhat from just saying "chapter 3" and excluding passages less closely related to the main material. You should focus on lecture material - that is primarily what you will be tested on. Nevertheless, you should pay attention to the reading in as much as it supports the lecture material. If there is something in the reading that is closely related to lecture material that I did not specifically cover, pay attention to it. For example, I did not specifically go over the role of Ca++ in cortical vesicle fusion in lecture, but it is very similar to what happens with the acrosome rection in the sperm. The book describes experiments using the calcium ionophore A23187 to find out where the Ca++ comes from in the cortical reaction - not from the sea water outside but actually from internal stores in the egg 's endoplasmic reticulum.
Also, as you prepare for the upcoming test, I will be handing out a list of study questions, some of which will appear on the test in identical or similar form.
A. A "null mutation" is one that causes complete loss of function of the gene.
The phenotype of a mutant with null mutation would be the most severe phenotype possible for a complete loss of the gene. A null mutation could, for example, be a complete deletion of the DNA containing the gene, or change of a single base in the promoter so that it can't be transcribed, or a change that causes a "stop" codon at the beginning of the protein (so you get only a short, non-functional bit of protein when the mRNA is translated), or a change that substitutes a different amino acid at a critical location in the protein (so that it doesn't function at all any more). Again, the central meaning is that the gene has no remaining function, however that comes about.