NASA has identified a new microbe present on Mars and requests that you determine the genetic code of this organism. To accomplish this goal, you isolate an extract from this microbe that contains all the components necessary for protein synthesis except mRNA. Synthetic mRNAs are added to this extract and the resulting polypeptides are analyzed: Synthetic mRNA Resulting Polypeptides AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Lysine-Lysine-Lysine etc. CACACACACACACACA Threonine-Histidine-Threonine-Histidine etc. AACAACAACAACAACA Threonine-Threonine-Threonine etc. Glutamine-Glutamine-Glutamine etc. Asparagine-Asparagine-Asparagine etc. From these data, what specifics can you conclude about the microbe’s genetic code? What is the sequence of the anticodon loop of a tRNA carrying a threonine? If you found that this microbe contained 61 different tRNAs, what could you speculate about the fidelity of translation in this organism?
Gene Interactions
When the expression of a single trait is influenced by two or more different non-allelic genes, it is termed as genetic interaction. According to Mendel's law of inheritance, each gene functions in its own way and does not depend on the function of another gene, i.e., a single gene controls each of seven characteristics considered, but the complex contribution of many different genes determine many traits of an organism.
Gene Expression
Gene expression is a process by which the instructions present in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are converted into useful molecules such as proteins, and functional messenger ribonucleic (mRNA) molecules in the case of non-protein-coding genes.
NASA has identified a new microbe present on Mars and requests that you determine the genetic code of this organism. To accomplish this goal, you isolate an extract from this microbe that contains all the components necessary for protein synthesis except mRNA. Synthetic mRNAs are added to this extract and the resulting polypeptides are analyzed:
|
Synthetic mRNA |
Resulting Polypeptides |
|
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA |
Lysine-Lysine-Lysine etc. |
|
CACACACACACACACA |
Threonine-Histidine-Threonine-Histidine etc. |
|
AACAACAACAACAACA |
Threonine-Threonine-Threonine etc. |
|
|
Glutamine-Glutamine-Glutamine etc. |
|
|
Asparagine-Asparagine-Asparagine etc. |
- From these data, what specifics can you conclude about the microbe’s genetic code?
- What is the sequence of the anticodon loop of a tRNA carrying a threonine?
- If you found that this microbe contained 61 different tRNAs, what could you speculate about the fidelity of translation in this organism?
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