Griffith Transformation Lab Report

1) DNA programs protein production in the cytoplasm by transferring its coded information to a molecule called RNA (mRNA). The RNA then carries the order to build this type of protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm.

Since DNA has the instructions for making protein we usually wonder how is it able to make ribosomes if DNA is stored within the nucleus. This is when a handy tool comes in called transcription and copies the DNA into mRNA so it can be reached outside of the cell.

Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years with accelerated discoveries and insights over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be most important and describe their significance to society, health, and the culture of modern life.

Transcriptase is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of DNA from an RNA template in reverse transcription.

3. A strand of DNA serves as a template (model) for the synthesis of RNA molecules.

Transcription is a process in which genetic information from DNA is encoded onto messenger RNA, by unwinding the DNA and splicing exons and introns and coding them onto the mRNA so the DNA itself is not used directly. Translation is a process by which ribosomes reads the mRNA to determine the amino acid sequence of the protein.

Purpose The purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate how genetic engineering works to manipulate the genetics to express certain traits. This can be seen with the insertion of the pGLO plasmid onto Escherichia coli. Introduction All of the things that is required to make a particular organism function properly, is called the genome. Eukaryotes have a genome that is composed of chromosomes, plasmids, and other specific organelles, such as mitochondria, chloroplasts, etc.

Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is a common bacterium that can be found in diverse environments all over the planet, including the gastrointestinal tracts of animals and humans. Many of these strains of E. Coli are essential mechanisms in the digestive tract, while others are pathogens that can cause complications in urinary and intestinal tracts. (Payne & Sparks) In research, E. Coli is commonly used as a model organism, meaning they are widely studied by scientists for a variety of purposes due to their experimental advantages. E. Coli is comparatively simple, and there are many advantages to studying these prokaryotic cells in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. E. Coli has this simplicity and is relatively easy to propagate in a lab environment. Their genome has been completely sequenced and many things we know about DNA, protein synthesis, and gene linkage have been derived from studies regarding this particular organism. (Cooper)

In 1928, Fred Griffith first discovered genetic transformation by infecting mice with unencapsulated and non-pathogenic pneumococci (Lacks 2003). This was the start that opened up the field of biotechnology. Genetic transformation is a process where foreign DNA crosses a membrane of another cell and then alters the genetic material (Encyclopædia Britannica 2015). Genetic transformation can occur in a few different ways: projectile bombardment, electroporation, and heat shock (Weedman 2015). Heat shock is defined by increasing the temperature of cells environment making the plasma membrane become more permeability allowing new DNA to transfer into the cell (Weedman 2015). The cell receiving the new DNA, also known as competent cells, can either amplify the DNA or clone the DNA (JoVE 2015). The most common type of DNA used to perform genetic transformations is plasmids: small, round DNA molecules that still contains two strands of DNA that has the ability

Since E.coli is prokaryotic, it contains only one circular chromosome and no nucleus. Scientists have used E.coli to synthesize DNA and proteins. E.coli manipulation has also been used to produce human insulin and other useful

It provides a base triplet, a sequence of three bases on one of the strands of DNA, that code for one amino acid. The sequence of base triplets on DNA molecules determines the order of the amino acids on the protein chain. In the first phase of transcription, the first process of protein synthesis that occurs in the nucleolus, a portion of a DNA molecule unwinds and serves as a template. Free nucleotides floating in the nucleoplasm pair up with their complimentary bases on the DNA strand.

Gene expression is the ability of a gene to produce a biologically active protein. This process is regulated by the cells of an organism, it is very important to the survival of organisms at all levels. This is much more complex in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes. A major difference is the presence in eukaryotes of a nuclear membrane, which prevents the simultaneous transcription and translation that occurs in prokaryotes. Initiation of protein transcription is started by RNA polymerase. The activity of RNA polymerase is regulated by interaction with regulatory proteins; these proteins can act both positively, as activators, and negatively as repressors. An example of gene regulation in cells is the activity of the trp operon. The trp

One of the fundamental discoveries of the 20th century was that DNA was the genetic code’s physical structure (Watson & Crick, 1953) and, since then, many studies have disclosed the complicated pattern of regulation and expression of genes, which involve RNA synthesis and its subsequent translation into proteins.

Transcription is where DNA is transcribed into RNA which then can be pass to the ribosome’s to act as a template for protein synthesis. Before transcription can begin DNA must unwind and the two halves of the molecule much come apart so exposing the base sequence. This process begins when a region of a two DNA strands is unzipped by enzyme called RNA polymerase attaches to the DNA molecule at the imitation site.

Avery, Macleod, and McCarthy took the findings of Griffith and wanted to reason why the combination of the two cells killed the mouse. The took the different parts which would cause the DNA, Protein, and RNA and eventually eliminated them one by one. After all of that, only bacteria that was exposed to the S-strain DNA were transformed. This gave the idea that DNA is what was controlling living things and was the outcome of this experiment