Unit 5 Reflection

In this unit, we learned of how DNA is made of a nucleotide by matching the nitrogen bases(Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) together, walking the dogma, mutations, and how does a gene regulate.  DNA is a double helix structure that moves antiparallel in a 5' to 3' direction. It contains Adenine and Guanine as purines (double ringed), and Cytosine, Thymine as pyramidines (single ringed).  When walking the dogma, the DNA code is read and then unzips, with RNA polymearse matching with the RNA strands in order to produce mRNA. The mRNA then transfers from the nucleus into the cytoplasm where it begins transcription. The ribosome then reads the mRNA 3 letters at a time(codon) to make an amino acid- sequance with AUG as the "start" codon. As a result, this forms a primary structure of amino acids. Mutations can vary from no effect(point mutations) to having effect(frameshift mutations). As in the Protein Synthesis lab, deletion, a frameshift mutation, had the most effect on the amino acid sequence by deleting T early in the DNA sequence. In gene regulation, each gene operon like the Lac Operon contains a promoter with the RNA polymearse attaching it, and an operator with the repressor attaching it. Then it produces the Lac gene, with always DNA attaching it.

My strengths in the unit was learning the DNA's double helix structure, walking the dogma,  and mutations and my weakness is understanding gene regulation. I still might need to look more in walking the dogma, though because it has process that needs to be remembered to understand and the parts of the gene operon.

By learning from these experiences I learned to put more time of effort and focus in the vodcast that have more details in it and still focus on the vodcast that do not have a lot of detail. As learning in the Vark Questionare that I am a visual and word learner, I watched vodcasts of the ideas I am not clear about, and taking the CFU for the section, really help expand my understanding and that I need to keep it up and till the finals. I have no questions;I wonder how long the Biology final will take me; I am a better student than yesterday.

Protein Lab Conclusion & Analysis

1. In order to make a protein , you first start transcription in the DNA.  The enzyme copies the DNA sequence to produce mRNA, which eventually moves to the cytoplasm. Next, the mRNA bounds with a ribosome when it translates in the cytoplasm. The ribosome then reads each codon starting with AUG, and determines the amino acid corresponded to the sequence. After each amino acid is read by the mRNA, they bond together and fold up a primary structure, making protein.

2. The mutations with the greatest change in the DNA genetic code is deletion, then insertion, while the mutations with least change is substitution. By deleting underlined T, the amino- acid sequence changed by the 3rd Amino acid from the original Amino-acid sequence and never was similar to that sequence. Same as inserting a C inside the genetic code instead it started from the 5th amino acid, that was different from the original amino acid sequence. So it does matter where the mutation occur since if the letter T for C, it still did not change the amino- acid sequence until it really started inserting and deleting letters in the DNA sequence.

3. I chose deletion as my mutation because it had the greatest effect on the Amino- acid sequence. While the other mutations had the same amino- acid sequence until the 5th amino acid (Insertion), deletion started to change from the original amino acid sequence in the 3rd amino acid. It does matter of where the mutation occurs since it can possibly harm or give support in your DNA code. 

4. Knowing which mutations are harmful or not, helps us by knowing whether to raise more offspring with a mutation. Since there are a variety of mutations, it is not necessary are all harmful or good. A mutation that alter's a human's phenotype, is Progeria which is a mutation in the LMNA gene, which provides supports to cell's nucleus. It causes accelerated aging, along with baldness in body and growth impairment. These people mostly die in when they are 13 years old of heart stroke or attack with rarely some living to their 20s'.

Human DNA extraction lab

In this lab, we asked the question of how can DNA be seperated from cheek cells to study it? Our group found out that DNA was caused by how much saliva we had are from how hard we were rubbing our teeth against our cheek cells. By using saliva formed by our rubbing teeth mixed with gatorade, it percipitated and form our own DNA. We observed that all our own DNA became visible after adding alcohol into the mixture of gatorade, salt( enzyme), and soap detergent, along with our cheek cell's saliva. This is because of lysis since alcohol , along with the enzyme (salt), was able to breaks the cheek cell's semi-permeable membrane. The gatorade was insoluble since with its' many chemicals inside, but it was mainly that was alcohol and process of Protease that broken the proteins of the cheek's cell membrane to extract our DNA. This data supports our claim because chemicals like soap, gatorade, and alcohol can easily be broken from the cheek cell's saliva for people, including scientists to study it.
While our hypothesis was supported by the data we gathered from how DNA was separated from cheek cells, there could have been errors due to the how hard did the students rub their teeth against their cheek cell and how much soap, salt, and gatorade was poured in the small cup. The catabolic of the students' teeth rubbing against the cheek cell and how much drops of soap, pinches of salt, and gatorade poured could have affected when and how the DNA was extracted. For example, our group all saw our DNA extracted after putting all the other liquids once, but did not finish at the same time because of how hard we rubbed our teeth along size of cheek cell. One thing we could have changed was eliminating several materials such as soap detergent, and gatorade, leaving only salt and the catabolic of the cheek cell's saliva. That way, since they are constants of the lab, they won't change(basic as histones) as much and become nonpolar to each other, giving them to be extra careful in how much salt they put and the intensity of their catabolic of teeth rubbing against cheek cells.
This labs done to demonstrate of how chemical reactions can easily extract DNA. With gatorade, salt, and soap, composed with the cheek cell's saliva, it forms our DNA since saliva is where all our bacteria is. This lab helped me understand the concept that the DNA's double helix structure can be broken by any chemical reaction or mutation that changes the letter pairing for the DNA. Based on my experience from this lab, I could apply that to never swallow any chemicals since it can hurt your DNA system.