Unit 5 Reflection

This unit was focused on the central dogma. This is the process of changing DNA to RNA to Proteins, and eventually to an organism. The reason for this process is to create the phenotypes of organisms. Proteins make up phenotypes. The Central Dogma states that information is transferred from DNA to RNA to Proteins, and eventually to Organisms (phenotypes). Transcription is the process where DNA unzips, and RNA is made to match the spare nucleotides to make messenger RNA. The mRNA them travels out of the nucleus and over to the ribosomes, where they will be read. Once they are read, they are separated into sets of 3 amino acids, or codons. These are protein sequences that make up our phenotypes.

Although the process sounds simple enough, many things can change, either cause harmless genetic variations, or make things go horribly wrong. These are called mutations. There are many different types of mutations. The first is called substitution. This is the least harmful mutation. Substitution is when one base is accidentally switched with another base. This causes slight variations in the protein codes. The most harmful mutation is deletion. Deletion is the taking away of necessary bases from the sequence. This can lead to serious damage and loss of code.

One of my greatest strengths was the ease in which I could transcribe and translate DNA to RNA, and then convert into codons. Because of this, I really enjoyed my Protein Synthesis Lab, and was done with it rather quickly. One of my greatest weaknesses however, was my lack of ability to understand gene regulation. I don't understand how the physical transfer of information works, which leads me into my unanswered questions.

Like I said, I don't fully understand how the physical transfer of information works, nor do I understand gene regulation in full. I am also not sure about how different genes all fit into 4 different nitrogen bases.

I think I grew the most in this unit because I had to stop and slow down to make sure I understood everything to the best of my ability. This was not a small/simple unit, but rather one I had to focus on. I did not just do the vodcasts for the credit, but I did it out of my eagerness to learn. I learned to do things for my own personal gain/incentive. I did not do it for the grade.