Protein Synthesis Lab

1. The process of making proteins (aka protein synthesis) follows the following steps: The first phase is called Transcription, which is when the copy is made. First, a section of DNA, known as a gene, is copied by an enzyme, then, the copy that's produced, called messenger RNA or mRNA for short, leaves the nucleus and travels to the cytoplasm. The second phase is called Translation, which is when the copy is used to make a protein. First, the ribosome reads the first three bases, called codons, then it determines which amino acid corresponds with that sequence and adds them. When the amino acids are bonded together and the mRNA is done being translated, the amino acid chain folds up to become a protein.

2. The mutations that seemed to have the greatest effect to the proteins are insertions and deletions since they're frameshift mutations, which alters the whole Amino Acid sequence. The mutation that seemed to have the least effect to the proteins is substitution since it only effects one base pair. It does matter where the mutation occurs because there are specific codons that starts the Amino Acid sequence and if the mutation occurs in the beginning then it'll change the whole sequence while if it occurs near the end then it'll only change a small part of the sequence.

3. The mutation that I chose was deletion. I chose this mutation because it's one of the mutations that have the greatest effect to the proteins and I wanted to see how different the code would end up. Compared to other mutations, this mutation has the most effect on the proteins, therefore also the result of the code. The original Amino Acid Sequence was Met-Tyr-Lys-His-Val-Ile-Asn-Cys-Ile but with the deletion of the first G from the DNA strand the Amino Acid Sequence ended up to be Met-Thr-Cys-Asp-Gin-Leu-Tyr-Leu. Again, yes it does matter where the mutation occurs because there are specific codons that start the Amino Acid sequence and if the mutation occurs in the beginning then it'll change the whole sequence while if the mutation occurs near the end then it'll only change a small part of the sequence. In my case, the mutation was at the start so the Amino Acid completely changed.

4. Mutations can affect our life by making us be different, look different, act different, and/or feel differently than others. A example of a mutation is heterochromia iridium, two different-colored eyes within a single individual. This condition is caused by the alteration in the expression of two genes that control eye color: EYCL3, on chromosome 15, which codes for brown/blue eye color, and EYCL1, on chromosome 19, which codes for green/blue eye color.