Unit 5 Reflection

Unit five was about DNA and RNA, DNA replication, and mutations. DNA replicates by separating the two strands. First, the DNA unzips, then it matches the the nucleotides, and finally the result gives you two identical DNA strands. DNA is made from a double helix, which are two strands connected by adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. To make a proteins, DNA goes to RNA, then it becomes a protein. The process where DNA becomes RNA is called transcription, when RNA becomes a protein it is called translation. The result is a long chain of amino acids. Mutations can be good, bad, or not affect anything at all. Insertion, deletion, and frameshift all can change the code of DNA.
My weaknesses were understanding the process of protein synthesis, while mutations were a bit confusing. The gene expression and regulation vodcast was a bit confusing. From this unit, I learned about DNA, how to extract DNA, mutations, and what DNA does for someone. I want to learn more about how your cell does this. I wonder how DNA is programmed to automatically do all of this.

Protein Synthesis Lab Conclusion

The body produces proteins by using DNA and RNA. DNA goes through transcription to become RNA, then the RNA goes through translation to become a protein. During transcription, RNA polymerase copies the DNA's code into mRNA. During translation, mRNA goes to a ribosome it translates the mRNA to DNA code, three base sequences at a time. One three base sequence codes for one amino acid.




Mutations can be good, bad, or not matter at all. Types of mutations are: deletion, substitution, and insertion. I found that substitution is the least harmful, because it still keeps most of the sequence in order, only changing one specific base. Insertion was the most harmful, because it moved all the bases to the right, making the DNA have no start and end sequence.

I chose insertion, because it completely changes the order of the bases. This made a code without a start and end base. It matters where the mutation occurs because if the insertion occurs at the end, it will only affect the rest of the bases. If it is in the beginning, then it will effect the entire code.




A mutation could cause harm, benefit, or do nothing to the person who has it. Spinal muscular atrophy is when some muscles don't receive signals from nerve cells in the spine. Symptoms of this are muscle weakness, areflexia, and loss of strength.

DNA Extraction Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question of: How can DNA be separated from cheek cells in order to study it? My hypothesis was: Swish Gatorade around in mouth, scrape the insides of your cheek, spit it back in the cup, put it in a test tube, add pineapple juice, add sugar, add detergent, shake it six times, then slowly pour alcohol into the test tube. After pouring the alcohol into the test tube, small clumps of DNA rose to the top with the alcohol. The detergent, sugar, and juice was protease to lysis the DNA, being catabolic. This result happened because the juice, sugar, and detergent helped the DNA come out, and the alcohol was made the DNA float up.
While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to the amount of detergent or juice we put in, because the drops could vary in sizes. In future experiments, measuring out the liquid before pouring it in would be easier. Also, while swishing the Gatorade, people could have swished the Gatorade for different amounts of time, causing more or less cheek cells to come off. We could have had a timer to be more exact next time.
This lab was done to demonstrate the steps and process to extract DNA. From this lab, I learned how to get DNA from my cells, which helps me understand how DNA works inside the cell. Based on my experience from this lab, I understand how polar and nonpolar substances can separate other substances.