Protein Synthesis Lab

A protein is made through a very complicated process where the DNA gets copied, and that copy is called an RNA. Next, the mRNA leaves the nucleus, and heads over to the cytoplasm. The mRNA specifically goes to the ribosomes, the ribosomes read groups of three bases. These groups of three bases are called sequences. Then DNA Polymerase goes around determining the proper amino acid for the codon. Once the process is finished, it all folds up to become a protein!

When you think about buying things, you always have that chance of getting a factory defect. That is why many companies have warranties, so they fix a defective product! This happens with making proteins too, but it is actually called a mutation. The three different types of mutations are insertion, deletion, and substitution. It seems as though substitution is the least effective mutation because it only affects one sequence. Remember that a sequence is a combination of three base letters. Deletion and insertion can be huge problems to the protein, especially if they are at the start of the RNA/DNA strand.

For the mutation of our group chose, we chose substitution. We chose substitution because it wouldn't greatly affect the DNA strand. It only changed one sequence, and it wouldn't make a difference where the mutation was located.

Proteins are essential to life, so it isn't optimal to have a mutation. A mutation could go from making oxygen travel in much less quantities in your blood to stopping the blood from clotting very easily. Some mutations can cause little to no clotting in your blood, which can cause serious damage to your body. There is also a mutation that was the complete opposite of this, called Thrombophilia. This is when the blood has an increased tendency to clot. Blood clots in your veins are very dangerous. A blood clot in your veins can travel around your body. It can go to your lungs, brain, or heart. There is an extremely high risk of a person dying if a blood clot gets lodged in any of these places.

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit talked A LOT about DNA, and how it is formed, copied, and wrapped several times, to make chromosomes. In the past couple of weeks, I have learned really how great our DNA is. Did you know that our DNA can copy 100 trillion times in a second? Just yesterday we learned about Protein Synthesis. Protein synthesis is a series of chemical reactions in which molecules are brought into contact with one another and chemical bonds are formed and broken. Even before that. We also learned a lot about mutations. In biology, a mutation is a permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements. We learned that in a DNA sequence, one slip up, and you end up with a mutation for life. Over the course of the past few weeks, I really learned how precise biology is and how detailed it is.  

Egg Diffusion Lab

The Egg Diffusion Lab

In this lab, we put an egg into vinegar, which dissolved the shell. We took two other eggs (both of them with no shell, just membrane) and placed one into deionized water and the other one into sugar water. We left the eggs for a couple minutes, and then looked at them. The egg in deionized water got slightly bigger, while the one in sugar got smaller. 

While looking at class data, it was common that the egg shrank when put into sugar water. This is because of a process called diffusion. Since the inside of the egg had a higher water content than the outside of the egg, the water moved out of the egg. This lead to an extreme decrease of the size of the egg. On the other hand, the egg size/mass increased when the egg was put in deionized water because the water passed inside the cell.

In this experiment, the cell membrane was pretty much the main reason anything changed in the cell. Diffusion was the main process that we tested in this experiment. This is why eggs are surrounded by a protective shell. The shell protects the egg against diffusion, and also things popping the egg. It also demonstrates how sensitive cells are to their surrounding conditions.

Vegetables are sprinkled with water because the skin of the vegetable can absorb that water. Salt is used to melt ice, but it destroys the plants on the side of the road. Usually there are not too many plants on the edge of a road where they salt the area all the time. 

After doing this experiment, I would like to test what different liquids do to an egg. How would lemon juice vs soap affect an egg? I would also like to test putting salt water on cells, and observing their changes in a microscope. This would be a very interesting way to observe the changes.

Human DNA lab

The lab we did today tested for DNA in our cheeks, with the question being "How can DNA be separated from cheek cells in order to study it?". The answer was very simple. Through a simple process, we separated out DNA using gatorade, detergent, rubbing oil, and pineapple juice. In the experiment, we started off by washing out our mouths with gatorade, so that it would pick up the DNA in our cheek. Then we each put a pinch of salt into it, which would separate the DNA from the excess particles from our mouths. But the separation of the particles and DNA was because the solution was polar, and the excess particles were nonpolar. Next, we dumped it into a test tube and put detergent into it. This broke down the nuclear membrane. Next, we added pineapple juice to it, causing it to be even more stringy than before, making it very visible. Finally, we put rubbing oil in it, causing precipitation, which means that the DNA floated up into the rubbing oil. And finally, you could see the DNA clearly. This is evidence that supports our claim. One error I had was I didn't wash my cheeks enough with the gatorade, which caused me to extract NO DNA AT ALL. I fixed the situation of course by redoing it and actually washing the gatorade good the second time. A second error was that we were a little of on our procedure, and that affected us the first time around, but we fixed it the second time. So two helpful reminders would be to really wash your cheeks and to look at the procedure VERY CAREFULLY. The purpose of this lab was to try and extract our own DNA using different liquids, and we accomplished that. I learned though that there is DNA all over our cheeks, and it is super easy to get out. I feel like scientists really need to know where DNA is easy to find in the body, so they can get samples if they need. That's how it can be used in everyday life. The lab was awesome and I know I will be able to do it again.