RNA interference

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,…

Genome is the genetic complement of an individual. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of DNA/RNA. The term genome can be applied specifically to mean that stored on a complement set of nuclear DNA but can also be applied to that stored within organelles that contain their own DNA as with the mitochondrial genome or the chloroplast genome. All prokaryotes and eukaryotes genome contain significant portion of repetitive DNA, there are two categories of repetitive DNA in…

A. What is the purpose of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)? List the four main components of a PCR. (2 points) The purpose of a PCR is to make large amounts of DNA segments from just a specific DNA sequence. This method is used to scientifically prove if a suspect of committing a crime is truly the person who committed the crime. The four main components of a PCR are: DNA from a sample, nucleotides A, T, G, C, DNA polymerase, and primers. B. What is gene expression? List the two steps of…

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…

Chirality is a geometric property of some molecules and ions. A chiral molecule/ion is non- superimposable on its mirror image. The presence of an asymmetric carbon atom is one of several structural features that induce chirality in organic and inorganic molecules. Many biologically active molecules are chiral, including the naturally occurring amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and sugars. In biological systems, most of these compounds are of the same chirality: most amino acids are…

Mutations are random. There are several reasons for mutations to occur. This essay will discuss what is a mutation, furthermore, it will examine different types of mutations that can occur, and it will inform you about how helpful and harmful mutations really are. Mutation is a change that occurs in the deoxyribonucleic acid sequence, gene or structure, due to mistakes that occur when the DNA is transcripted or because of environmental changes. Mutation occurs when there is a mistake in the…

Organelle Failure Nucleus: The nucleus of a cell is, without doubt, one of the most important parts of the cell. The nucleus instructs every single part of the cell what to do, and what the different organelles need to do. The nucleus includes chromatin (protein and DNA). It also contains Nucleolus (nucleoli is plural). These nucleoli are responsible for ribosome production. If the nucleus were to suddenly malfunction, this would mean that the cell would have no directions, and nothing to…

Epigenetics, a contemporary and often misunderstood topic in the field of biology, was first defined in the early 1940s as “the branch of biology which studies the causal interactions between genes and their products with bring the phenotype into being” (Dupont 2009). Since then, as understanding of the human genome has developed and grown, a complex array of errors and dysfunctions in the processes of gene regulation, expression, and replication have been shown to cause, or correlate strongly…

Before we can talk about what a polymer is, we need to know about ATOMS and ELEMENTS and MOLECULES. To learn about atoms and elements and molecules, click here. Paul Lemur This is PAUL LEMUR. He's a lemur named Paul. Polymers are made up of many many molecules all strung together to form really long chains (and sometimes more complicated structures, too). What makes polymers so fun is that how they act depends on what kinds of molecules they're made up of and how they're put together. The…

Mitochondria was first discovered in 1856 by Swiss anatomist Van Kölliker. Dr. Kölliker while he was conducting a study on muscle tissue (Giezen, Page 1). He found these “sacrosomes” which would later become known as mitochondria. When scientist first started discovering mitochondria they were extremely fascinated with all of the various structures of the mitochondria (Giezen, Page 1). Early scientist posted numerous theories of the origin of mitochondria. One of these theories was that…