principle that nucleic acids, like DNA and RNA, are negatively charged. This means that if you put nucleic acids in an electric field, they will migrate away from the negative end of the field and toward the positive end. The nucleic acids are placed inside the gel for two main reasons. One, the gel is a way of holding them to know where they are. Two, the migration needs to occur in a manner that allows for the separation of different-sized pieces of DNA or RNA. The gel has many microscopic…
Introduction Gene drives are a controversial new invention made to affect genes of a species, which can potentially eliminate animal spread diseases. A gene drive refers to a genetic system that manipulates a gene, guaranteeing all offspring to contain a certain dominant trait. As the trait is dominant it eventually spreads throughout the whole species, allowing them to all contain the manipulated trait. Scientists have designed this in order to eliminate mosquito-transmitted diseases such as…
Final Exam Bacteria’s gene is only coding (makes a protein) meaning one gene equals one protein. Bacteria’s life history is a short lifespan, reproduces quickly in large number of individuals. Griffith finds that bacterial cells can be transformed. (Raven) There are two forms of bacteria, one that causes pneumonia and a nonvirulent that does not. The nonvirulent lacks enzymes to manufacture the coat of polysaccharide. Griffith performed a series of experiments with these types of bacteria on…
pancreatic ASC, I will isolate total RNA from UPF1 mutant cell lines and perform RNA sequencing. To establish whether the upregulated genes are direct targets of NMD, I will compare this data with RNA isolated from cells where UPF1 is downregulated using short hairpin RNAs. To validate the top targets from RNA sequencing experiments, I will perform qPCR and northern blotting. To examine whether these candidates are also altered in pancreatic ASC, I will analyze the RNA levels of top targets in…
INTRODUCTION Biological ageing, or senescence, is a complex process characterised by progressive functional deterioration and cognitive decline (1). Accumulation of age related changes make individuals more prone to death and disease (2). Understanding these changes is important to understand the complexity of the human lifespan. The Hallmarks of Aging (3), is an article which describes nine factors that contribute to the ageing process. Aggravation or alleviation of these could contribute to…
CRISPR is a technique that made genomic editing significantly easier. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) is a RNA-guided nuclease for precise genome editing in diverse organisms. In 1987, when scientists were studying the bacteria's immune system, they discovered a pattern of short, repeating, palindromic DNA sequences separated by short, non-repeating, "spacer" DNA sequences (Figure 1). How CRISPR/Cas works in bacteria: As…
The ribosome reads information along the mRNA and brings the amino acid together with help from transfer RNA. Transfer RNA has a cloverleaf shape with base-paired arms and an attached anticodon sequence. At the bottom of the tRNA there is an anticodon that pairs with a codon on mRNA. A codon is a sequence of three nucleotides. Codons are read, in order, by tRNA,…
After reading chapter three I had a better understanding of DNA replication, what genes do, and also how humans are connected to other species, a better understanding on how we are all part of a “biological continuum”. In 1962 three men named James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins won of the most distinguished award which was the Noble prize. Although one more person also help discover DNA which she was not credited was Rosalind Franklen. DNA replication is the process one strand of…
I feel as if the chapters of life, species, and environment are the most relatable to lecture as well as our biology class as a whole. First and foremost, Ridley addresses life in his first chapter. This chapter consisted of the evolution of RNA to DNA. RNA was first on this planet Earth and it was the creator of life. On the opposition,…
synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her initial work to solve large RNA structures led to other studies of structure on HDV ribozymes, and the IRES, and protein-RNA complexes like the Signal recognition particle. Now her labs focus on collecting a mechanistic understanding of biological processes involving RNA. these studies are broken up into three different sections. The CRISPR system, RNA interference, and translational control by MicroRNAs.She has collected the scientific…