Unit 5 Reflction

In this unit, we focused on the subject of genetic code. We learned about DNA. It is a double helix spiral that contains all the information to make  proteins and all of us. DNA has two complementary parts, the 3 5 and the 5 3 which there are purines and pyrimidines which pare up with each other A T and G C. The four bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine. The sides alternate between phosphate and sugar. DNA is semi conservative replication which means that half of the DNA remains original. DNA polymerase breaks the bonds of DNA and unzips it and a new strand forms on each original strand. The Central Dogma says that it starts at DNA and then goes to RNA and then goes to ribosome. The DNA is transcribed into RNA by making a complementary strand of the DNA and replacing Thymine bases with Uracil. You then Translate it from genetic code to protein code in the ribosome. Each three bases, a codon, maps to an amino acid. These are assembled and these long amino acid chains become proteins. Mutations are also very important because they are changes in the genetic code. If they are small changes they rarely do anything but if they are big changes they can be very harmful. Two types of mutations are frameshift mutations and substitution. Substitution replaces one pair and doesn't cause many problems especially if it doesn't change the amino acid. A frameshift mutation, however changes every amino acid after the mutation and causes huge changes. There are two types of frameshift mutations: insertion and deletion. Gene expression and Regulation is very important because it determines which genes are expressed. If there was no gene regulation, there would be no cell differentiation and all the cell will be able to do the work of all the cells, but it will take it more time and energy which could cause death in the organism.
     I believe my strengths in this unit was the understanding of DNA and RNA because it built upon things I'd learnt in previous years. My weakness was in gene expression and regulation because I was unfamiliar with the topic. One of the setbacks was being sick which caused me to not be in class for the day we were supposed to go over the gene expression and regulation vodacast. I want to learn more about gene expression and gene regulation because that is my weakest point. I would like to know how understanding it could help us understand certain diseases like cancer which are cause by no cell apoptosis which leads to cells being replicated more times than a normal cell should. I think I became better at studying over this unit because of the upcoming final. I started to apply the studying techniques such as writing into memory and self assessment. Not having the vodcast notes for two of the vodacasts made them take longer than just filling them out on the printed paper, but it made it easier to remember many of the details.