Day 36 Biotechnology and Genetic Disorders
Genetic Disorders
Most common disorders
P – Point mutation, or any insertion/deletion entirely inside one gene
D – Deletion of a gene or genes
C – Whole chromosome extra, missing, or both (see chromosome abnormality)
T – Trinucleotide repeat disorders: gene is extended in length
Class Activity:
You and a partner is going to pick one of the common genetic disorders. Read about it, and then write a short presentation where you explain your disorder to the class. You must explain the affects of the disorder, the treatments, and what type of mutation causes it.
DNA Sequencing:
23 and me https://you.23andme.com/
Biotechnology is the use, and especially the alteration, of organisms, cells, or biological molecules to produce food, drugs, or other goods
Some important terms in Biotechnology
-Genetic Engineering
-Deleting, adding, or changing the genes of an organism
-Recombinant DNA
-DNA that contains genes or portions of genes from another organism
-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism)
-An organism that has been genetically engineered or genetically engineered to have recombinant DNA
Recombinant DNA can happen naturally
-Bacteria naturally share DNA
-Bacteria will absorb DNA from their environment. This process is called Transformation
Another way that DNA can be transferred between species is through viruses
Humans also contain a lot of viral DNA. We acquire it over our lifetime
Virus life cycles
There are two different types
-Lytic Cycle- Where the cell makes viruses until the cell bursts
-Lysogenic Cycle- Where the DNA joins the cells DNA and stays dormant until it goes into the lytic cycle
How to make a genetically modified organism
-In order to make an organism with transgenic DNA we take the plasmid of a bacteria and place the gene we want in it.
-Once we have genetically engineered the plasmid, we insert it into the organism we are modifying.
We can make genetically modified humans by combining these techniques with cloning
PCR
-PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is a process where segments of DNA are copied
-If you are going to work with DNA you need to make lots of copies of it so you have a lot of it to work with
-A strand of DNA is placed in a tube with a couple primers, some free nucleotides, and a special DNA polymerase obtained from a bacteria/Archaea
-The DNA polymerase begins copying the DNA strand over and over until you have lots of copies of it
Gel Electrophoresis
-Gel Electrophoresis separates strands of DNA
STR
-Short tandem Repeats
-Every human has STR DNA that does not code for anything. Most people have different lengths of STR. This is how we identify someones DNA
-We compare 13 different STR strands. If all 13 have the same length of nucleotides then we know it belongs to that person
-When we do Gel Electrophoresis it is the STR strands that we are sequencing.
-Restriction Enzymes
-A restriction enzyme is an enzyme that cuts DNA at a specific point
-We use restriction enzymes to cut the 13 different STR DNA strands
-Once we have the DNA strands we want we can place them in the Gel Electrophoresis chamber