Summary
The task of this project was to describe how a protein can cause a disease by explaining what protein synthesis is, compare normal proteins to diseased proteins, and detailed background info of the disease. The disease we decided to research was type two diabetes. Our project is in the form of a poster.
Concepts
- Protein Synthesis - Protein Synthesis is the process of creating new proteins from DNA. It is split up into two phases, transcription and then translation. Transcription occurs in the nucleus. A RNA polymerase attaches to a DNA strand and unzips it. It then makes a copy of one side of DNA, know as mRNA. Once it is done coping the mRNA will leaves the nucleus and goes into the cytoplasm. Next is translation, the mRNA attaches to a ribosome in the cytoplasm. tRNA then brings amino acids to the ribosomes according to the codons of the DNA sequence. This process will repeat until a stop codon is reached. After this the polypeptide chain will go through a process called protein folding.
- Codon - A group three nucleotides on a mRNA that is read by the tRNA.
- Anticodon - A group of nucleotides brought by tRNA to match the corresponding codon.
- RNA Polymerase - An enzyme that creates mRNA. It does by unzipping DNA, then uses one strand as a template for the mRNA. The corresponding neuclotides to the template to for a mRNA.
- Polypeptide Chain - A chain of amino acids
- Protein - An organic macromolecule, made of amino acids, that creates enzymes that speed up chemical reactions in the body, builds tissues and muscles, transports material, and regulates the activity of the cell.
- Protein Folding Structures - There are four structures of protein folding: primary, a chain of amino acids in the cytoplasm, secondary, starts folding moves to endoplasmic reticulum, tertiary, the hydrophilic or hydrophobic parts dictate more folding and moves from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus, quaternary, arrangement of the protien subunits larger protein complex.
- Alpha Helix - A coil shape protein structure held by hydrogen bonds, formed in the secondary phase of protein folding.
- Beta Sheet - A protein structure in an s shape pattern held by hydrogen bonds, formed in the secondary phase of protein folding.
- Degenerative Disease - A disease that affect tissues and cells, that get increasingly worse over time
- Amino Acids - An organic molecule
- RNA (types)
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) moves a DNA sequences from the nucleus to a ribosome in the cell for protein synthesis
- Transfer RNA (tRNA) decodes mRNA and brings the amino acids that correspond with the sequence to the ribosome for protein synthesis.
Our Project
Reflection
Working on this project was quiet enjoyable. All my group members did their equal share of the work and were almost always working. This was a change that I greatly enjoyed. In past groups, group members were off task, not pulling their weight, and sometimes being a distraction. So it was nice to see people that cared about their work and learning. Besides that, there also some more good thing. For a long time, I have working on being more of a leader in group projects. I am happy to say during this project I was the leader of the group. I helped organize the project and divide the research for each member. I also shared more of my ideas and opinions. Additionally, I worked on my communication. When we were researching inform for the project, I would check what . I also asked my team mates before I made any important changes to the project. A lot of good things happened during this project and I improved greatly,but there are still things I can improve on. Even though I was working almost all the time, I wasted time by talking and taking breaks. In the future, I will try to work more diligently. Another I could have done better was creating the poster. The poster has a lot information and hit all the requirements, but I feel like I could have made it more visually appealing. In the future, I will try to make my groups presentation be more visually appealing and have the same level of information.