Difference between revisions of "Class Journal Week 2"

Revision as of 05:18, 6 September 2013

Miles Malefyt

• What is the biggest discovery that I made from these readings?

The most interesting part of the readings came from the Hayes article where it was determined that only 114 out of a million codes were better than our genetic code already in place. This made me think that over the lifetime of genetic evolution, the code now used in our genes is

• What part of the reading did I understand the least?

The part that I understood the least came from the Moody paper where he compared the four different amino acids as essentially a binary code. I was under the impression that it was pretty important if a nucleotide was either an A or a G and that they couldn't be interchanged

• How was the genetic code solved experimentally?

A scientist named Nirenburg took all the mRNA and observed which amino acids they all translated into

• What is the relationship between genetic code and computer code?

The relationship between the genetic code and a computer code can be viewed as an input-output relationship. A certain code goes in and a specific result comes out. A single codon is like that of a line of code where individually it just makes an amino acid but together and in the right order they form a specific protein, or in coding, a program

Lena Hunt

• What is the biggest discovery that I made from these readings?

The biggest discovery I made from these readings came from the Hayes article. I thought that it would make sense that because DNA has to fit into the nucleus of a cell that it would have to be very information dense, but learning that DNA actually has extra nucleotides to buffer the effect of mutation and mistranslations was a revelation. I knew about introns and exons, but before now I didn't understand why introns existed.

• What part of the readings did I understand the least?

I didn't particularly understand the Nirenberg article. He referred to a lot of organic chemicals that I was unfamiliar with, and the pace of the writing left me glassy-eyed. I think that if I was more familiar with the types of tests he was performing that I would have been more engaged.

• How was the genetic code solved experimentally?

Nirenberg sythesized mRNA and observed which amino acids resulted from a given input.

• What is the relationship between the genetic code and a computer code?

DNA encodes "lines of programming," a message composed of nucleotides that needs to be "run." A section of DNA in transcribed, just as computers transcribe sections of a program on a disk. In both computers and cells, the transcribed pieces are sent to different parts of the system. In cells, mRNA is translated into amino acids which become proteins, while in computers digital data is translated into analog output.

Lena (talk) 23:00, 3 September 2013 (PDT)

Kevin McGee

1. What is the biggest discovery that I made from these readings?

• I thought it was extremely interesting how Moody compared computer hackers to Nirenberg’s experiment. He would construct his own mRNA codons and watch what amino acids they would make as he imputed them. This is similar to computer hackers, who learn about knew computer systems by imputing information and watch what happens.

1. What part of the readings did I understand the least?

• I found the Nirenberg article to be very confusing. It was very heavy in its science and involved many procedures and language that I was unfamiliar with. I was able to grasp the big picture of the article, but I had trouble following the details

1. How was the genetic code solved experimentally?

• Nirenberg synthesized all 64 RNA codons, and looked at what amino acids were given from the codons.

1. What is the relationship between the genetic code and a computer code?

• The genetic code holds an extremely large amount of information and it is encoded through 4 nucleotides. A computer code tells a computer a large amount of information through the use of 2 numbers, 1’s and 0’s. The nucleotides tell the code for the cells, and the numbers tell the code for computer commands.

Kevinmcgee (talk) 19:38, 4 September 2013 (PDT)

Lauren Magee

Gabriel Leis

1. The biggest discovery that I made from these readings was the concentration of protein in a cell as described by Brown in the NCBI article. As a biochemistry student I focus my attention on these molecules on the atomic level so often that I lose scope of the number of these molecules in organisms.
2. I understood sections of the Nirenberg article the least. A lot of topic specific information was needed to fully understand the article.
3. The Genetic Code was developed in two primary ways. The first was through analysis of the protein products derived from known sequences of artificial mRNA using cell free protein synthesizing systems. The second method involved the evaluation of a sensitive ribosome assay to see which amino acids associated with which RNA sequences.
4. The genetic code is essentially is essentially the link between mRNA (program lines) and amino acids (the output). The ribosome acts like the CPU as machinery to translate the program lines into an output but the Genetic Code is what guides the translation machinery.

Gleis (talk) 21:33, 4 September 2013 (PDT)

Tauras

1. I was most interested in the comparison between DNA and computer code made in the Moody article and how the quaternary of the genetic code could be converted to two digit binary code. I've always heard DNA referred to as the genetic code, but had not thought before about the possibility of converting it into computer code.
2. Like many of my classmates, I understood the Nirenburg article the least. He included a lot of technical language that did not make much sense to me, especially about his earlier research and the terms he used to describe his research.
3. The genetic code was solved as Nirenburg (and Martin) synthesized trinucleotides and then determined what amino acid each trinucleotide added to a protein chain.
4. The genetic code can be translated into computer code by using a di-digit binary system to represent the four amino acids. Like computer code, genetic code gives the instructions for specialized program output which is translated by different cells (computer equivalents) to produce proteins and working machinery.

-Taur.vil (talk) 23:16, 4 September 2013 (PDT)

Stephen Louie

1. I was intrigued at the relationship shared between computer code and DNA. For the most part, I was relatively familiar with the biological aspect of DNA. However, I never considered the possibility of DNA being translated into something that can be input as a program. I am sincerely intrigued at the aspect of using digital technology to research and modify the human genome in the form of a code.
2. The historical review article was slightly confusing to me. From prior knowledge, I had a good idea at the type of work the author was performing. However, I was unfamiliar with several parts of the article when he went into greater detail. I feel that I would have a better understanding of this article, if I had taken more upper division biology courses.
3. The 64 trinucleotides of known sequences were used to determine what nucleotide input created what amino acid.
4. Genetic code is similar to computer code in that they are both command instructions that determine the actions of a machine, whether it is a organism or a computer program. Genetic code can also be translated into a binary sequence with A being 00, C being 01, G being 10, and T being 11.

Slouie (talk) 05:46, 5 September 2013 (PDT)

Mitchell Petredis

1. The biggest discovery I made from the assigned readings for this week was how complex and time consuming it was for Nirenberg and his colleagues to properly decipher the genetic code. Most textbooks I've seen gloss over the history of a research project, but being able to hear this story from a personal account made the reading more insightful.
2. Nirenberg's account was also the most difficult to understand since the many organic chemicals and procedures involved in the research were unfamiliar to me.
3. Nirenberg and his colleagues spent a year synthesizing all 64 trinucleotides and tested each one to see what amino acids were produced.
4. According to Glyn Moody, the four letters of the genetic code (A, C, G, T) can be read in terms of binary code found in computers by swapping "A" with "00", "C" with "01", "G" with "10", and "T" with "11" (Moody 3).

Mpetredi (talk) 14:40, 5 September 2013 (PDT)Mitchell Petredis

Kevin Meilak

1. The biggest discovery I made from these readings was how the genetic code was cracked experimentally. I had previously learned about how it was thought at the time that protein was the genetic material, not DNA, but never imagined how long the experiments took or how difficult it was to demonstrate that mRNA caused the incorporation of amino acids into protein.
2. The most difficult part of the readings was some of the experimental procedures in the Nirenberg reading. Despite a background in biology, experimental procedure from a biochemistry perspective was discussed little, even for processes as significant in biology as replication, transcription, and translation.
3. The genetic code was cracked in several steps. After it was discovered that DNA, not protein, was the genetic material, the next logical step was to discover how it translated itself into protein and RNA. First, it was discovered that mRNA was the molecule that served as an intermediate between DNA and protein. The existence of this intermediate demonstrated that DNA did not, or could not, directly translate itself into protein. Then it was discovered that the code was read in triplets “by the amounts of radioactive histidine, threonine, asparagine, glutamine, lysine and proline that were incorporated into protein by five poly(A-C) preparations that contained different ratios of A and C” (Nirenberg, 50). Then, each possible trinucleotide combination was mixed with the 20 different tRNAs to determine which amino acid was coded for by each trinucleotide.
4. The genetic code is like a computer code in that both at digital; the base pairs adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine do not code for protein because of inherent chemical properties but rather in how they relate to each other. The Moody reading demonstrated that substituting 00, 01, 10, and 11 for each nucleotide produced the same effect as A, T, C, G. The importance is how they are read, not what they are.

Kmeilak (talk) 17:22, 5 September 2013 (PDT)

Dillon Williams

1. The biggest discovery that I made from these readings was the particular process in which the genetic code was solved. I had never actually read the process of how the code was cracked before this article.
2. I found the Nirenburg article to be very confusing based on the language that he was using as well as the multiple references to things that I didn't have any previous knowledge of, as a result it was fairly difficult to follow.
3. The genetic code was solved by Nirenburg, who synthesized trinucleotides and then determined which amino acid each trinucleotide added to a given protein chain.
4. Much like computer code, genetic code can be translated into a formulaic system using binary. This code is then read based on how the nucleotide sequences are read, allowing the body to respond to the function in the code.

-Dwilliams (talk) 20:05, 5 September 2013 (PDT)

Katrina Sherbina

Hilda Delgadillo

What is the biggest discovery that I made from these readings

• The biggest discovery I made from these readings was the fact that tRNA was discovered before mRNA as read in Nirenberg’s personal account, so in a way we approached the synthesis of proteins in reverse, from translation to transcription.

1. What part of the readings did I understand the least?

1. How was the genetic code solved experimentally?

1. What is the relationship between the genetic code and a computer code?

• The genetic code is like a computer code due to its ability of handling all types of “programs” within the body. The genetic code is crucial for the function of the human being, so it is the software of the body as computers are in need of operating system software to continue its function.

Hilda Delgadillo