Unit 5 Reflection

Unit five was about DNA and how it impacted all of biology and the life around us. The themes of the unit included DNA regulation, production, and expression, the overall theme bring DNA and how it codes for basically everything in life. The essential understandings included how a protein is made, what the different types of mutations are, and how DNA functions and replicates. The production of a protein involves the RNA polymerase first copying the strand of DNA. In prokaryotes, the RNA polymerase stays on the promoter of a gene until the repressor, depending on the environment that it is in, detaches from the operator, allowing the RNA polymerase to copy the gene in the DNA into mRNA. In eukaryotic cells, gene regulation is much more complicated. There are several proteins called "transcription factors", which which control (i.e. regulate) the expression of a gene. The only way a gene can be expressed is if the required transcription factors are present. This process of turning DNA into mRNA is called transcription. It replicates an exact copy of the DNA in an antisense fashion (going from 3' → 5'), creating a copy identical to the antiparallel strand of DNA (which goes from 3' → 5'), with the exception of the NTP thymine, which is replaced for a chemically similar NTP, uracil. In eukaryotes, there is an additional step called splicing in which special splicing proteins remove the parts that are not supposed to be included in the sequence for the protein, called introns, and leaving the exons, which must be used in the protein sequence. The mRNA then travels to the ribosomes where the amino acids for the creation of protein are made. In this process, tRNA are each attributed and attached to certain amino acids. Each three NTP represents a codon, which is specific to each tRNA, which is specific to each amino acid. The finished chain of amino acids are then transferred to the RER, where it is folded and assembled into a protein.

Visual Explanation of DNA Transcription
Figures Copyright of Pearson Education Inc.

My strengths in this unit included the basics of biology, which were elementary in order to form more complicated biology that we are learning right now. My greatest weakness was understanding gene regulation and expression. It was an advanced topic anyways and, coupled with my inability to visualize something without a physical visualization, made this very hard for me to picture in the beginning. However, the activity that we did in class enforced my learning, and I was more familiar with how gene regulation and expression actually worked. I have still have some parts of the gene regulation and expression that I don't understand. I also have a lot of questions about it, as I'm really interested in figuring out, to the most elemental level, how gene regulation and expression was done by cells. There are still many mysteries to how the cell does things and why and how it knows to do so, so I'm not alone when it comes to trying to explain these strange phenomenons that occur in the cell.

Visual Example to Transcription Factors in Eukaryotic DNA
Figures Copyright of Pearson Education Inc.

I am growing as a student, because there is a lot of new details of biology that I now understand and can explain in my own words. This shows me being a growing student, because I am able to grasp the new information that is being pummeled at a very fast rate at me, while still having enough time to analyze it and understand it thoroughly. This process gets faster and faster as I progress through schooling, making me a more greater and more educated student each day. A good student has several characteristics that allow said student to try his or her hardest and encourage him or her to strive for perfection everyday.

A great video by Bozeman Science, showing how eukaryotic genes are regulated
It enforces knowledge of how transcription factors play roles in the regulation of eukaryotic genes