The following list of concepts provides a guideline for teachers who are unsure if their students are ready to learn gene annotation. This list can also be helpful in planning the instruction that will precede the student activities found in the Student Section of this site.

Students should have a good understanding of:

• The details of both transcription and translation
• The structure and replication of DNA
• The concept of transcription regulation (origin, promoters, transcription factors, etc..)
• Post-transcriptional mRNA processing in eukaryotes(the addition of the Poly-A tail and 5' cap, splicing of exons and removal of introns)
• The concept of a genome
  

Resources that Support Annotation Activities:

• Alternative Splicing website with video
• Introduction to BLAST Queries at NCBI
• BSCS bioinformatics module
• Gene Discovery in the Maize Genome
• DNA Interactive's Genome Tour, Genome Project, & Genome Mining
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology: A PowerPoint Presentation courtesy of Drena Dobbs, Iowa State University