Protein Synthesis Lab Conclusion

The process, or procedure, of creating protein from DNA is called protein synthesis and requires several steps. First, the DNA unzips and the RNA polymerase begins to read the DNA, creating a complementary strand of RNA. Once the RNA is created, the mRNA exits the nucleus for the cytoplasm, and eventually bonds with a ribosome. The ribosome then starts to read the mRNA three bases at a time, called codons, creating amino acids for the corresponding codons. Finally, once the ribosome finishes reading the mRNA and creates the amino acid chain, the amino acids begin to fold into the final protein. The end result is a unique protein made of several amino acids.

Mutations can range from being lethal to very lethal, especially if the DNA is changed drastically. There are several ways that DNA can be altered, and some are more lethal than others. The least lethal, or least effective is a substitution, where one base is substituted for another, and the most it can alter is one codon, barely affecting the protein. The next two are frameshift mutations and can affect the DNA sequence drastically. The first is an insertion, where one or more bases are inserted into the DNA, and the second is a deletion, where one or more bases are taken out of the DNA. Both these mutations will shift every base after them and are more lethal if the insertion or deletion is at the beginning of the DNA sequence.

In step 7 I chose to do a deletion of two bases, which turned out to be very effective. The protein was affected drastically, as a result of the deletion of only two bases, the entire protein was deleted because the first codon was a stop codon, rendering the protein non-existent. The bases that were deleted were in the front of the DNA sequence, therefore causing more damage because it shifted almost all of the bases, changing the protein in the process.

Proteins make our body work, but it there is a mutation in the protein, the effects could be drastic. A good example is progeria, a rare disease that causes accelerated aging. People affected by this disease can die at the age of 13 but can live up to their twenties, and only about one in eight million are affected by this disease. The disease is caused by a mutation in the LMNA, a protein that supports to the cell nucleus, and shows the horrible effects that just one protein can cause.

Citations:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/10-unusual-genetic-mutations-in-humans-470843733
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ribosome_mRNA_translation_en.svg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Missense_Mutation_Example.jpg
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progeria