Protein Synthesis Lab

       The DNA first unzips, then the RNA Polymerase matches spare nucleotides to make an RNA strand. Messenger RNA is produced and leaves the nucleus for the cytoplasm. This first process is called transcription. Next, the messenger RNA is read by the ribosome 3 bases at a time. The DNA language of nucleotides is translated into the protein language of amino acids. Each 3 base sequence is known as a codon and each codon has one amino acid.This process is called translation. The result of these processes is a chain of amino acids that will fold up to become a protein. 

       Substitution did not change the protein at all. Insertion and deletion were the most harmful, though deletion was more so. The placement of the mutation matters in that the further to the end, the less amino acids will be altered. If the mutation is at the start of the sequence, it has more of a chance to affect every amino acid. Substitution was least harmful because the overall number of bases stayed the same, whereas insertion and deletion changed the number of bases in total.

       In step 7, I chose substitution as my mutation. I chose this mutation because I wanted to emphasize how little this mutation usually affects a gene sequence. It does matter where the mutation occurs, of course. The closer to the start allows it more possible codons to change, but the number of bases doesn't change in substitution, making it hard to be very harmful and alter many codons. Substitution was less harmful than insertion and deletion simply because of the amount of amino acids each mutation had. 

       Without proteins, our bodies would have difficulty functioning properly. Thalassemia is a disease in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin and this results in destruction of red blood cells, which causes anemia. This disease causes fatigue, yellowing skin, enlarged organs, and malnourishment.