Question

Practice matching bases under “More about DNA & Genes” and “Build a DNA Molecule”.

Please complete the other strand on the DNA molecule below A T C G G C T A T T A G G A Under the “Tour of Basic Genetics” find “What are DNA and Genes?”, and answer these questions:

About how much DNA do we have (make sure to include units)?

What is your genome defined as?

About how many genes do we have?

About how similar is your DNA to that of another person?

Speaking of “genes”, it is now time to turn the DNA into RNA. To do this, please go to “More about DNA & Genes” and “Anatomy of a Gene”. You will need to click around the image to answer these questions. Genes begin with a Promoter, click on the promoter and tell me:

What binds to a promoter and why?

Genes contain Introns and Exons, which one of these are cut out?

Now to understand a little bit about what this sequence means, please go to “More about DNA and Genes” and “How do Cells read Genes?” Learn a bit about a “DNA as a sentence” and the Universal Genetic Code.

Why is having the correct “reading frame” important?

What letters code for the start codon?

What do the stop codons do and what are their codes?

Also tell me, what is a mutation?

To learn a bit more about the outcome of mutation, leave the “More about DNA and Genes” section and check out one of the examples in “More about Mutation” and then “The Outcome of Mutation”

Pick one of the examples and explain to me what happened

Now watch a video about making and using RNA under “More about Proteins” and “Transcribe and Translate a Gene”.

This process relies on DNA and three types of RNA, under “More about RNA” and then “RNA’s role in the Central Dogma” give me a description of the following

DNA

mRNA

tRNA

rRNA

Finally, put it all together. Explore “How a firefly’s tail makes light” under “More about Proteins” and tell me, starting at the gene and ending at the chemical reaction, how does a firefly make light?

Answer 1

Answer:

Given Strand of DNA has nucleotides: A T C G G C T A T T A G G A
Other strand will have nucleotides : T A G C C G A T A A T C C T

We have about 3 billion base pairs which reside in 23 chromosomes within the nucleus all the cells. These base pairs constitute gene which carry the genetic information for an individual. If you open the DNA of one nucleus , it will be 2 meters long.

Genome is an organism's complete set of genetic instructions. Each genome contains the blueprint that will help "make" that organism and also maintain it for life. It consists of all the DNA in the body including DNA from nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplast.(if present).

Gene is a sequence of nucleotides that encodes the formation of gene product - protein. According to the human genome project, human body has around 20,000 - 25,000 genes. Every person has 2 copies of each gene wherein one copy is inherited from each parent.

Any two random human beings will have 99.9% same DNA. It is the remaining 0.1% that makes us all look different from each other.

Promoter are sequences of DNA which determine the start of transcription by RNA polymerase. These sequences are recognized by transcription factors which bind to the promoter and guide the RNA polymerase to the right sequence to be transcribed.

Genes contain introns and exons. Both are transcribed on mRNA. Introns are nucleotide sequences which do not code for anything. These sequences are then spliced out and the Exons which are the coding regions are then joined together to form mature mRNA.