Spring 2027

Prokaryotic Molecular Biology

Prokaryotic Molecular Biology covers the molecular basis of bacterial physiology and genetics, emphasizing nucleic acid-protein interactions, transcription, translation, replication, recombination, and gene regulation.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Katrina Forest

Exams were open book but very hard, forcing students to understand material deeply and problem-solve on the fly.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Access and evaluate original research literature.

  • Demonstrate problem solving practices.

  • Identify enzyme mechanisms responsible for transcription, translation, gene regulation, and replication in bacteria.

  • Compare the structural bases for the mechanisms.

  • Evaluate the experiments that led to our understanding of theses mechanisms.

  • Deconstruct how these enzymes respond to nutritional and environmental signals in cells.

  • Outline the evolutionary basis and selection pressure for these mechanisms in vivo.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(BIOCHEM 501 or 507) and (MICROBIO 470,GENETICS 466 or 468) or graduate/professional standing

BIOCHEM/GENETICS/MICROBIO 612 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

KATRINA FOREST is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Katrina Forest

Students described the class as good but potentially overwhelming without a strong background in prokaryotic systems.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.49 GPA, 57.9% A/AB (n=57 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.68 GPA, 87.8% A/AB (n=49 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.38 GPA, 64.8% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Katrina Forest

Exams were open book but very hard, forcing students to understand material deeply and problem-solve on the fly.

Past student reviews · Katrina Forest

Dr. Forest was described as very passionate about teaching, though the course content could feel overwhelming for some.

Topics

  • Molecular basis of bacterial physiology and genetics
  • Nucleic acid-protein interactions
  • Transcription, translation, replication, and recombination
  • Regulation of gene expression
  • Evolutionary basis and selection pressure of molecular mechanisms

Skills

  • Access and evaluate original research literature.
  • Demonstrate problem solving practices.
  • Identify enzyme mechanisms responsible for transcription, translation, gene regulation, and replication in bacteria.
  • Compare the structural bases for the mechanisms.
  • Deconstruct how these enzymes respond to nutritional and environmental signals in cells.
  • Outline the evolutionary basis and selection pressure for these mechanisms in vivo.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "01981a248daf16449ed819d1b42c96f9ab348c28777caaa3121023efd3bf7c60",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}