Jolyn's Blog for Hotdawgs

This unit was titled "Walking the Dogma", which refers to the central dogma. The central dogma shows the process of DNA changing into mRNA to protein. First, we talked about the general idea of our genetic code, DNA. It is a double helix and is made of nucleotides, which one is made up of a nitrogen base, a phosphate group, and a sugar. Nitrogen bases come in two types: purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (thymine and cytosine). DNA has to copy itself and reproduce another in order for both cells to be identical during the cell cycle. To do so, it unzips and matches itself with another nucleotides. It results in two identical strands. We move on to the main event: central dogma. The DNA is transcribed in the nucleus and is read by the RNA polymerase. Like in the process before the cell cycle, the DNA unzips. After, RNA polymerase matches the remaining nucleotides to others to make RNA strands. The next step is translation, changing the RNA into amino acids. The mRNA

To create a protein , there are two main steps: transcription and translation. During transcription, the DNA code, the gene, gets copied in the nucleus, which is know as the messenger RNA (mRNA). This changes the pyrimidine, thymine, to uracil. The product travels to the cytoplasm. The next step is translation, which uses the copy to make a protein. The ribosome reads the mRNA three bases at a time and turns it into an amino acid sequence , or a codon. It results in a long chain of amino acids, which twist and folds up to become a protein. When making a protein, there's a lot that could go wrong, maybe a mutation . A mutation is a change in the gene. There are a few types of mutations, such as point mutation. Under that category, there are two types of point mutations: substitution and frameshift mutation (which also has two types of mutations: insertion and deletion ). When a mutation is added into the sequence, it could either harmless or very harmful. I thought that del

In this disgusting lab, we asked the question, "How can DNA be separated from cheek cells in order to study it". We concluded that if we wanted to separate DNA from our rosy cheeks, we'd have to do a number of steps. Three steps, to be exact. Those steps would be homogenization , lysis , and precipitation . To achieve homogenization, we used Gatorade to break down the cell tissue. Because of Gatorade's polarity , we could use it. Gatorade has electrolytes, like sodium and potassium, that athletes sweat out during physical activity. We took a shot of Gatorade and swished it in out mouths, hoping to gain the cheek cells needed. After, we spitted it back into a cup. The next step was lysis. We added salt and detergent into the mix, to emulsify the proteins and lipids of the cell. Next, was the protease solution: pineapple juice (tempted to make a pen-pineapple-apple-pen joke). The pineapple juice is a catabolic protease, which is to break down the histones further. M