Protein Synthesis Lab

Protein Synthesis Lab

There are there two parts in the creation of a protein: transcription and translation. During transcription, DNA "unzips," and RNA polymerase re-matches those spare nucleotides, thus making an new RNA strand: messenger RNA or mRNA for short. The messenger RNA leaves the nucleus and travels to the cytoplasm. There, it finds the ribosome. The ribosome reads and translates the RNA 3 bases at a time (these are called codons). It translates it to protein language, or amino acids. Each codon is one amino acid. These chains of amino acids are folded up to make proteins.

nyu.edu/classes/keefer/story/story5.htm

Based on what I have seen, frameshift mutations - both the insertion or deletion of a base - seemed to have the greatest effect on the proteins, as both completely alter the sequence of the bases. When we inserted in a C base to the DNA strand, it mutated the protein so greatly that there was no end and most of the amino acids were changed. When we deleted a T base from the DNA strand, it dramatically shortened the chain of amino acids. The location of the mutation does matter, because if we had deleted a base near the end of the chain then the outcome wouldn't have been as dramatic. The same goes for insertion; if we had inserted a base near the end, then the resulting protein wouldn't have been effected as substantially. The substitution of a base seemed to have the least effect on the protein. When we substituted a C for a T in the DNA strand, there was no effect, as the codon which was changed still translated to the same amino acid. The location of the substitution does not matter, unless the mutation occurs in either the first or last codon- thus changing the start or stop amino acid.  

I chose deletion because in my previous experiment it had the greatest effect on the protein. This mutation didn't alter the protein quite as severely, but still resulted in a protein with no ending. It does matter where the mutation occurs, and if a base closer to the beginning of the amino acid chain had been deleted, then the resulting protein would be almost completely different than the intended version. 

Crohn's disease is a disease caused by frameshift mutation- specifically the insertion of a C base. It is an inflammatory bowel disease. This disease causes you to lose a lot of weight, have pain in your gut,  have a lot of dietary restrictions, and much more. These are symptoms of the disease because it causes swelling in the digestive track as well as ulcers (holes).