Muscle Fiber, Hey! small words!

Muscle fiber is the term used to collectively describe the many long, multi-nucleated muscle cells, or myofibers, that make up skeletal muscle. Individual muscle fibers are arranged into bundles — termed fascicles — that are then further organized into groups of fascicles, which form the muscle belly. Each level of organization is sheathed in a membrane of connective tissue and is serviced by blood vessels, lymph vessels, and nerves. The individual muscle fibers themselves are often classified as either fast twitch or slow twitch fibers, and most people usually have a predominance of one fiber type, based on both genetics and activity level.

 

Slow twitch muscle fibers are generally associated with long duration, low intensity activities. This type of muscle fiber is used both for endurance sports, such as marathon running, but also in the daily stability activities of core muscles and similar groups of fibers. Slow twitch fibers generally produce usable energy by way of a method known as oxidative phosphorylation, a highly efficient system that consumes high levels of oxygen. As a result, slow twitch muscle fibers are well-serviced by blood vessels and rich in mitochondria and myoglobin, an oxygen-binding protein similar to hemoglobin. The high concentration of the red-hued myoglobin proteins are responsible for the general term red fibers being used to describe slow twitch fibers.

 

Fast twitch muscle fiber is normally associated with short, powerful bursts of energy and rapid fatigue. Power lifters, sprinters, and similar athletes tend to develop high proportions of fast twitch muscle fibers. This type of fiber can utilize either oxidative phosphorylation, or the less efficient, but faster glycolysis to liberate energy from nutrient molecules. Most fast twitch muscle fibers contain high levels of stored glycogen to power glycolysis, but have a lower level of mitochondria and myoglobin, as well as a smaller capillary supply. This often leads to the muscle fibers having a lighter color than slow twitch fibers, earning them the name white fibers.

 

In humans, both types of muscle fibers are usually interspersed within a single muscle, with greater or lesser proportions of each depending on genetic pre-disposition and the function of the muscle. In bird species, however, there is a more orderly division of muscle fiber types. The characteristic white and dark meat in poultry for example, are representative of the different muscle fiber types within the bird.

Athletes looking to build muscle usually tailor their workouts depending on the type of muscle fiber they want to develop. Endurance athletes will typically perform high numbers of repetitions using low resistance to develop the slow twitch fibers, while power athletes and body builders will usually use higher weights for shorter sets, to develop fast twitch fibers. While genetic potential may play a role in muscle fiber distribution, there is a certain amount of plasticity in the ability of muscle fibers to shift roles in response to imposed exercise demand.

 

The picture above shows the difference in muscle fibers by the way these two look. one is very thin and doesn’t look so strong, when in all actuality he has a lot of muscle, just its white muscle fibers which is why he is a distance runner! the man to the right who looks like a body builder is a sprinter and has built big red muscle fibers that contract quickly!

So now that we know what a muscle fiber really is, time to move to my little project! In order to show my understanding of what a muscle fiber is, I made a model to depict a muscle… although it does have a remarkable resemblance to a stick of dynamite….

 

Can you see the resemblance??? I guess you can say that muscles are like your bodies “firecrackers!”

Doing this model helped paint the picture of what these little things look like all over your body creating muscles! In all reality it’s just a really big chain of little microfibers grouping together to create every muscle in your body!

In-Teg-u-ment-ary…..integumentary system!

When you think of “integumentary” what do you think of? Well if you are anything like me you think, “Dang, that’s a long confusing word…must be Science related!!” and if you thought that, you would be correct! The Integumentary system is definitely a science topic! The short answer to “what is the integumentary system?” would be that its skin. But the skin is the biggest organ in your body! (Yes, it IS an organ!) And so being a HUGE organ, there are many parts to it. Look at your hair, now back at this. Look at your nails. Now back at this, I’m orange now, now look at the color of your skin, now back at me, I’m black again! All of these features you just looked at are all part of the integumentary system.

So let’s begin with the layers of the skin that we all have!

Epidermis: The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. The epidermis is comprised of Keratinocytes, Melanocytes, Langerhans, and Merkel cells! Human skin is continually being renewed, in contrast with that of reptiles that molt. The desquamation of cells on the skin’s surface should naturally be compensated for by renewal of the epidermis, a process undertaken by the Keratinocytes (85% of the cells in the epidermis). These possess two properties which successively come into action – the ability to actively divide and the ability to differentiate.

Horny Layer:  the first layer of the Epidermis

Clear Layer: Second layer of the Epidermis (guess what! It’s clear!!!)

Granular Layer: third layer, skin cells begin to die here and rise until they reach the horny layer. This is also the thinnest layer of the epidermis!

Prickly Layer: 4^th layer (second deepest layer)

Basal Layer: 5^th layer, the deepest layer of the epidermis!

To get a better look…here is a picture!!

 

The next big layer is the dermis! The dermis is 10 to 40 times thicker than the epidermis. At the junction with the epidermis, its surface bristles with fibrous, vascular and nervous projections – the dermal papillae. The fibroblasts are the main cells in the dermis. They are essentially located in the dermal papillae close to the epidermis, and found only in very low numbers in the deep layers of the dermis known as the reticular dermis. They are specialized in producing two types of protein fibers, collagen and elastin fibers constituent of the extra-cellular matrix. Collagen fibres, 70% of the proteins in the dermis, give the dermis its resistance to strain and traction, while elastin supplies its elastic properties.

 The reticular dermis accounts for the greater part of the dermis. On this level, the elastin and collagen fibers are multidirectional, whereas in the dermal papillae the elastin fibers are mainly oriented perpendicular to the skin surface.

• The upper, papillary layer contains a thin arrangement of collagen fibers.
• The lower, reticular layer is thicker and made of thick collagen fibers that are arranged parallel to the surface of the skin.

The next major layer is the Hypodermis! The hypodermis is the innermost and thickest layer of the skin. It invaginates into the dermis and is attached to the latter, immediately above it, by collagen and elastin fibers. It is essentially composed of a type of cells specialized in accumulating and storing fats, known as adiposities. These cells are grouped together in lobules separated by connective tissue.

 The hypodermis acts as an energy reserve. The fats contained in the adiposities can be put back into circulation, via the venous route, during intense effort or when there is a lack of energy providing substances, and are then transformed into energy. When we speak of “burning up calories”, we are burning up fats in particular. The hypodermis participates, passively at least; in thermoregulation since fat is a heat insulator.

 The anatomical position of the hypodermis is clearly a sexual characteristic. Whilst the hypodermis is distributed over the entire body, it has a tendency to accumulate above the belt over the abdomen and shoulders in men, and in women, below the waist around the thighs, hips and buttocks.

The integumentary system protects the delicate inner tissues and organs by acting as a barrier against dust and pathogenic microbes. It also plays a major role in homeostasis. The structures comprising this system and their respective functions have been explained previously and when you combine all of these you get one, really big organ all working to protect the body! It prevents the entry of foreign bodies like dust particles, bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. It is the site for synthesis of vitamin D in our body. Sensory receptors for touch, pain, pressure and heat are present in skin. These sensory structures are involved in the detection of stimuli and communicating the changes in stimuli to the effected organs of the body. Hair and the associated glands are involved regulating the body temperature (thermoregulation), and in maintaining the water balance of our body. The sweat glands are involved in excretion of electrolytes as well as inhibiting the colonization and growth of harmful bacteria on the skin surface. Nails confer protection to the fingertips and also aid in gripping objects with more precision. Thus, the integumentary system is essential for protection of the internal tissues and maintaining the internal integrity and equilibrium of the body.

Doesn’t it just seem like every little piece of your body ends up being a thousand times more complex than you think? Well, that’s because this IS SCIENCE! And that’s just how we do things around here!

Link

Microsopy Lab

This is a presentation all about Microscopy and all that it entails! including a lab that i did! so read, enjoy, and LEARN!!! 😀

Tranformation Lab-ish

This lab…ummm…well….let’s just say it didn’t turn out like it was supposed to…So I won’t be using examples from my groups lab so it won’t be as in depth as I would want it to be.…BUT! I do know what was SUPPOESED to happen. So I will tell you how it was supposed to turn out! Let us…BEGIN!!!

In this lab there are 3 different types of dishes that the bacteria were growing in:

The first was called LB and it had normal growth with nothing extra added into it.

The second dish was a mixture of LB and ampicillian, which is an antibiotic.

The third dish had the LB, the ampicillian, and a new mixture called arabinose, which is sugar.

All of our groups were given at random little dishes with these in them. So we weren’t sure what we had. Next we took a tube and injected it with a bacteria colony, and also got a plasmid which was basically a piece of new DNA. This was the positive tube. The other tube received no plasmid. This is the negative tube. I have stolen a picture that my friend Mandi Jebe, (http://manditaylorjebe.wordpress.com/) found and better describes what the plasmid in the positive tube is doing!

This picture is of the plasmid that we put into the positive tube. This part is really important to understand, so take the time and make sure you know what you are looking at and understand it all! Now, that we have all of the pieces into the tubes and understand them. We begin by placing the tubes on ice. We keep them on ice for approx. 10 minutes. Then we switch then into hot water immediately to “shock” the mixtures! We let them sit in the hot water for exactly 50 seconds. Then once the 50 seconds are up, we put the tubes directly back into the ice to keep them in shock. This makes the mixtures mix completely and gets the plasmid in the positive to get mixed in. now we take the tubes and hold them in our hand for 10 minutes. (we hold them because it helps the mixtures repair themselves easier and faster) after this 10 minutes is over, we need to get these mixtures onto the dishes!we put 100ul of the transformation and control suspensions onto the appropriate plates. (So we drop an even amount of positive onto the assigned dishes, while we do the same with the negative dishes.) Then by now class was almost over so we threw all these dishes into an incubator for overnight! When we came back what we were supposed to get was this:

But, like I said…ours didn’t turn out like that. Basically what happened is the plasmid acted almost as a transporter.  And you can tell which ones had the positive, because when the plasmid was added. It also added a “green gene” that glows under a black light! This Plasmid acted as a barrier between the bacteria and the ampicillian. So of course the Negative dishes died because there was no barrier and the ampicillian killed the bacteria!

Like I said…this lab was short especially since I wasn’t able to show my actual experiment…but I was able to give you the best that I could and there is actually a lot to say about this lab! I just wish I could say it about MY lab…but oh well! I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe you can do it on your own and do better than I did!

Charles Darwin, Was he THE GUY?!?!?

Evolution…dare I say it? Does it exist? Is it all a fraud? Is science right? Or is Religion right? Paper or plastic? Evolution is a very controversial topic to discuss….but I am going to do it dang it! Many people believe in evolution, but many people also believe in religion. But what is evolution exactly? Evolution is the theory that animals change and evolve from animal to animal. For example, after thousands of years of evolution the Chimp has evolved into the Human!

But this isn’t the big question that we are asking here! We have been discussing a man by the name of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin is the guy who always gets credit for the evolutionary theory. But the big question is…Did Darwin do it all?? Well…simply…NO! This whole project is about the OTHER people that affected the evolution theory.

Before we get to everyone that we have to discuss…Let us begin with when did the evolution theory actually come into play? The evolution theory began to come into play in the mid -1800’s. Darwin and Wallace stated the theories of evolution by natural selection. These were created not only by their own travels and influences, but also in writings of previous scientists before them!

The first person on the list is Mr. Eramus Darwin. You guessed it! He is related to Charles Darwin! Actually Eramus was Charles’s Grandfather! You could say that evolution runs “in the family”? Anyway, Eramus was a physician, Poet, Philosopher, botanist, and a Naturalist! Talented guy right? He was the man to first make out the theories on evolution! Charles Darwin did NOT “come up with” Natural Selection. His grandfather did! The one big thing that Eramus Darwin believed in was that everyone came from one single common ancestor. “One living Filament” for everyone, a lot of what he did was supported by Lamarck (who is next!) Eramus had the idea that competition and sexual selection could cause change in a species. He used Observations of domestic animals, the behavior of wild life, and his integrated knowledge of many other fields to come up with this new look at things!

This next person who stated earlier is Mr. Jean Baptiste Lamarck! When he lived, people thought his theories were impossible, and completely wrong, so he was criticized and attacked by most people. He was the founder of the Theory of heredity. (The theory that said we inherit traits). He began to study medicine and botany after he got out of the war! And in no time at all he became an expert at these studies! In his early times he wrote a book on the plants in France and was an assistant at the Royal Botanical Garden, which was also the center for medical education and biology research. In 1973, when the garden was turned into a museum, he was picked to be the professor of the Natural history of insects and worms. Sounds sooooooo interesting right? Not! (This was also a subject he knew almost nothing about!) But, he went deep into the topic and did very well for not knowing anything! He created the word invertebrates, and re-classified many insects and put them into different groups! In 1801 he began his way down the path of evolution and published his first theories! His theories really meant that organisms aren’t passively altered by the environment.  There would be a change in the environment, which would mean a change in needs of the organism which, in the end, would lead to a change in their behavior. But many people thought his theories were the same as the ones Mr. Eramus created. Lamarck’s first law states that less use of a structure or organ on the organism, allows it to disappear or get smaller. But using the Organ More can cause it to become stronger and bigger! His second law was that those changes in an organism were inheritable and be passed on. This created a slow process of changing that eventually changed all the organisms! Unlike Eramus, Lamarck thought evolution was the process of creating perfection. Meaning it was not done by chance!

The third person we will discuss is Georges Cuvier. Certain people think of him as one of the smartest people to ever walk this earth! He founded vertebrate paleontology. He also created the comparative method. His big thing was that he proved that there was past life forms that went extinct! Cuvier believed that no part could be modified without impairing functional integration. However, he didn’t not believe in Organic evolution. Any change in organism’s anatomy would render it unable to survive is what he thought. As I stated earlier Cuvier’s longest lasting contribution to biology was establishing extinction as a fact. By proving this he proved that fossils represent some life forms that never existed! So the people who believed that god wouldn’t allow them to be wiped out are false! He proved that the elephant was not a descendent from the mammoth. Mean that the mammoth had to have gone extinct! Studies like this are what launched the Vertebrate Paleontology.

The last person we have to talk about is Thomas Malthus. He observed that in nature, plants and animals always produce more offspring than could ever survive! He believes that every living species is able to overproduce offspring without being checked. Thomas thought that such Natural causes were gods’ way of preventing laziness. Having more people than being able to support also creates a very competitive environment to live in. Ever heard of the saying “survival of the fittest”? Ya, this is where it comes in! You have to be able to outlive your peers in order to pass on your genes to your children. Mr. Malthus actually stated that we need to have a limit that lower class families cannot have to many children that they cannot handle!

Now that you have gotten to know the people that influenced Charles Darwin, let’s have a look at his observations and travels that also contributed to his work! One place that really gave Darwin a lot of observations and information were the “Evolution Islands” or, as we call them today, the Galapagos Islands. He learned many things at these Galapagos Island, and I will do a short Q and A session to explain this part

1: What interesting evidence of geological change did Darwin observe while visiting the Galapagos?

A: He had just recently been in Chile when there was a good sized earthquake and there were rocks everywhere. He found some rocks that were 6 feet underwater that were on the shore. This made him believe that earthquakes are responsible for the raised beaches. They were actually ancient shores that dried as the land rose. Knowing that, he also knew that some animals would have to be able to adapt to that!

2.What did Darwin learn about the Galapagos finches when he returned to England?  What vital information had he neglected to record when he collected them?

A:  He had learned that the finches’ beak would evolve to handle the food sources it was around! He could tell just by looking at the beak, what the bird eats! As the environment changes, so does the birds beak!

3. Describe the distribution pattern of Galapagos mockingbirds.  What question did this raise in Darwin’s mind?

A: There were 4 different types of mockingbirds in the Galapagos Islands. Three islands each had their own, specific species. Then if you can do the math, there is 1 species that is spread out throughout the islands! This was weird to him because the islands were the basically the same so why wasn’t there just 1 species?

So, Darwin did do a lot of amazing things in his time, and he saw a ton of amazing things! He learned a lot about the possibility of evolution…but he was in no way shape or form the ONLY man responsible for the theory of evolution. Without those other men before him, this whole thing would be a different story! And we wouldn’t know half of what we know now! Now, all of these men were we brilliant men of their time, but it took all of them to create what we now know as the theory of evolution! It’s very easy to say now, that the theory of evolution is easily a possibility! But I am not sure if we will ever truly know!

 

DNA Sequencing Comparison

Well now if you have been following my blog, you know that we have really been working on DNA and DNA sequencing! So now I bring you my post specifically on DNA sequencing!! For this project we all had all kinds of different sequences and we had to compare them with each other to see what their relations were! Mainly, our goal was to figure out how closely related us human are to other animals! To do this we went to a website called Biology workbench. We went on and created a new session and titled it “Beta Globin”. Once the session stared we added all the DNA sequences into the session. Now, every animal is in the session. So we can now go in and pick between any two of the DNA sequences and compare them within seconds! This way we can answer the questions that are asked very easily! So let us BEGIN!!!

HUMAN vs. CHIMP—-FIGHT!!

Round 1: How many nucleotides are there in the beta Globin gene for the chimp and the human?

A: the Chimp has 600 base pairs while the Human has 626 base pairs!

Round 2: What percentage of the Beta Globin sequence is conserved in chimps and humans?

A: All of it basically! 99%! Chimps and humans are VERY similar!

Round 3: would you expect protein structure to be highly similar or markedly different in the chimp and the human?

A: I expect the protein structure to be highly similar! Simply because we always hear about how chimps are so similar to us! BUT, I didn’t know that we were that similar!!!

HUMAN vs. CHICKEN—-FIGHT!!

Round 1: What percentage of the Beta Globin sequence is conserved in chickens and humans?

A: Humans are surprisingly similar! We are 57% similar!

Round 2: Looking at the pair wise alignments, would you expect the beta Globin protein found in humans to be more similar to those found in chickens or chimps?

A: The chimps easily! I say this because humans and chimps are 99% similar while humans and chickens have only 57% similarity. Though it is amazing we are that similar to a chicken!

Round 3: Do these results support evolutionary relationships determined by scientists using automical similarities?

A: Yes it most certainly does! Scientists for years have said that us and chimps are much alike from our thumbs, to our face, to our anatomy!

Here we have what is known as an un-rooted tree. This shows a visual representation of the relationships of animals!

1: which two species appear to be the most related to each other?

A: The human and the Chimp are easily the closest, because we are 99% similar and the closest on the picture!

2: Which two spaces seem to be the least close related?

A: The Human and chicken are the least closely related. Because they are the farthest away on the picture and only 57% similar.

This graph shows the similarity between other mammals!

Comment on the significance of these results given your knowledge about mammalian groups

It is easy to see that when you look at mammals their similarities are very close. But as you move onto other species they are not as similar!

This is what is known as a “rooted Phylogenetic tree.

1: Which species is most closely related to the goldfish?

A: The CHICKEN!!!

2: Which species is the most closely related to the mouse?

A: Chimps and Humans!

3: Homology is a term used to refer to a feature in two or more species that is similar because of descent; it evolved from the same feature in the last common ancestor of the species. Hence, similarity in DNA or protein sequences between individuals of the same species or among different species is referred to as sequence homology. Which two species in the tree above share greatest homology with respect to the beta Globin gene?

A: the species with the greatest homology with respect to the beta Globin gene are the human and the chimp

4: A node is a branch point representing a divergence event from a common ancestor. Which two species have the most ancestral nodes (divergence events) in the tree above? Explain your answer giving the number of nodes leading to these species.

A:  Chimps and Humans because they each have 3 Nodes!

5: Looking at the Phylogenetic tree above, which two organisms:

a: Diverged from their common ancestor most recently?

A: Wallaby

b: Diverged from their common ancestor least recently?

A: Human

If we were to add a kangaroo into the mix it would look like this!:

 

Other methods that I think could be used to determine evolutionary relationships would be:

1: anatomy/structure

2: Fossils

3: Biogeography

CSI MIAMI!!!…or not… (DNA fingerprinting webquest)

Have you ever wondered how the police force or the forensics teams on the T.V. shows figure out how someone is the culprit of a crime JUST by their fingerprints? Well you have come to the right place! In this post you will discover exactly how these people do it! How will we do this? With a webquest of course!

This webquest will have a long question and answer section in it that I will answer for you today so you can learn about what this all means! Let’s start with learning exactly what is happening… now when you see the Title “DNA fingerprinting” you’re probably thinking about using their actual fingerprints…but that is not the case! DNA fingerprinting can be used by using any piece of the person! Like a strand of hair, or a piece of tissue, or anything that may have their DNA on it! So with that said…let us begin!!!

Part 1

To kick things off, we started by looking at an actual case. This man was accused of killing his wife and then was proven innocent years later through a DNA test. 45 years later the man’s son went up against Ohio State for wrongfully imprisoning his father. It still remains as one of the longest cases in history! DNA test have become 100% correct because of today’s technology. And that has given the man his life back and has done so for many MANY people! Now, onto the questions!!

1. In your opinion, what role (if any) did newspaper stories and editorials have in the outcome of the original trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard?

The newspapers and editorials did a TON to change the outcome of the trail! Throughout the trail it stated that the jurors saw everything in the press, and there were even some disruptions during the actual trail that probably got the jurors to switch sides.  When there is a bad press all over the case. It has to pressure them into voting for the side that the press was on!

2.What is the function of the restriction enzymes in DNA fingerprinting?

The function in the restriction enzymes in DNA fingerprinting is to basically cut the molecules into different lengths depending on their code. Every person in the planet has a different code, so when it cuts the DNA strand we can read it and computers can determine who on this planet it is!

3. What is the function of the agarose gel electrophoresis step?

The function of this step is to separate the DNA strands based on their length! To do this, you put the Gel into a tray, this gel has a small hole, or a small depression in it. This is where you put the DNA. You then turn the tray on (which basically has a positive charge at one end…and a negative charge at the other) then you watch the DNA move slowly toward the positive side. After enough time has past, you see the DNA has made little bands that have patterns at different lengths. You do this enough times and you end up with a banded pattern you get from X-ray film. This is your DNA fingerprint! Only you have one like it!

4. Why is a nylon membrane used to blot the DNA?

We use the Nylon membrane to blot the DNA because the gel is extremely hard to handle and this makes it much easier to handle! (for example: think of trying to handle Jell-o and not drop it!!)

5. What does a dark spot on the X-ray film indicate?

It shows where the probes attached to the DNA and gets the DNA fingerprint! Simple enough right?

Part 2

In the second half, we have another actual case, this one in which another man was falsely accused and proven innocent through DNA fingerprinting! This time we read 2 interviews by people involved with both DNA and they also were lawyers involved in the case.

6. What evidence was initially used to convict Cotton?

The evidence they tried to use to convict cotton (the man who is innocent) was an eye witness. Now, in something such as RAPE, you would think you would remember the person who attacked you, but apparently in this case, the victim couldn’t remember who it was and so they had many police line-up so she could remember who he was. But she just picked the one who looked the closest to him.

7. What did the DNA evidence show?

The DNA evidence showed that Cotton was not the man who raped her and that he was completely innocent! This also proved to the court that eye witnesses aren’t always reliable!

8. How could DNA fingerprinting be used to prevent a false conviction if a case like this was being tried today?

It would help out EMENSLY! We often use DNA for this exact purpose! It would have been easy to figure out who committed the crime at the beginning if they had DNA fingerprinting! And as I said before DNA fingerprinting is 100% accurate so there is no way to fight against the evidence shown with it!

9. What percentage of convicts are unjustly convicted of sexual assault cases, according to Neufeld and Scheck?

Neufeld and Scheck said that approximately 25% are wrongly accused and convicted. They know this because of DNA fingerprinting that has been done later on. This is an insane statistic when you really think about it…I mean every 1 in 4 people will be wrongly accused of a crime!!

10. The O.J. Simpson trial was one of the most visible trials that attempted to use DNA evidence.  In the end, the DNA evidence was not satisfying to the jury, who acquitted Simpson.  What do Neufeld and Scheck believe about the impact of the O.J. Simpson trial on the use of DNA evidence?

Neufeld thought it was a trial that was highlighted by a huge potential for technology. But he said that they need to be very careful on the controls we  exert and that we use this technology wisely! Sheck basically agreed with him. He stated that we needed to make SURE that mistakes aren’t made!

Well there you have it!!! After reading through the webquest and discussing the questions…we have gone over a TON of information! But to sum it all up, DNA fingerprinting isn’t just about fingerprints…it also has to do with anything that has DNA on it! This is mainly used in the judicial system, and has many times proven someone innocent when they were accused guilty…or vise versa in some situations! But though the process does support 100% evidence…we MUST make sure we do this right. Because there is still the possibility of human error! So DNA fingerprinting is a revolutionary idea! As long as we learn to use it correctly ALL THE TIME!

Bacterial ID Lab!!!

Again, i decided to do this lab on a Prezi!! so please follow this link to get to my awesome prezi on The Bacterial ID lab!

DNA Extraction Lab

Lately in Biology, we have been discussing DNA and DNA purposes. Well in this lab We asked the questions “What does DNA look like?” And “Can we actually see and touch DNA?” For the answers to the Questions…Please visit this Presentation to find out!! Have Fun!

Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid…WHAT?!?!?!?!

Lately in biology, we have been going over DNA and what DNA is comprised of! We have done a DNA extraction lab to see what DNA looks like. and with that knowledge and from other models/experiments we made i have come to tell you all i know about the wonderful world of DNA!

What makes DNA:  DNA is a very complex thing, but if you know me or read my other posts…you know that I DO NOT like complex things! So I am going to break this whole thing down into something way simpler to understand! So let’s start with the basic simple nucleotide. There are three parts to a Nucleotide base for DNA.

Part 1: Phosphate- in the diagram phosphate is the little circle sticking out of the pentagon. The phosphate is a little group of phosphate that has bonded with oxygen atoms. With this little group of bonds, it makes the whole nucleotide easy to connect with other things, thus making it easy for two nucleotides to stick together.

Part 2: Deoxyribose sugar- This is the big pentagon in the center. This is a pentagon because this is a pentose sugar, meaning that it has 5 carbon atoms! Now there is another pentose sugar that we won’t discuss quite yet call Ribose sugar which is used in RNA (Ribose Nucleic Acid) but that’s a discussion for a different time and different blog post.

Part 3: Base-the final part of this nucleotide is the nitrogen base. There are 4 bases that can be given to any nucleotide. Those are A (Adenine) T (Thymine) C (Cytosine) G (Guanine). But these bases cant connect with just any other base. The A base must connect with a T base and the C base must always connect with a G base! This may seem very random but what the above picture doesn’t show is that the A and T bases are double bonds, while the C and G bases are triple bonds! This picture shows you a better look at a double and triple bond!

 

So now that you know what a single nucleotide is comprised of…let’s begin to look at a bigger picture. Think of one of these nucleotides connecting with another, then another, then another, and so on… and you get a strand of DNA that looks like this:

 

Then when you get 2 of these strands, they begin to connect to each other with the bases. The picture below shows us a great example of what a strand of DNA looks like once this connection process is complete. Please take a look at the direction the phosphates point on each side and how the base pairs line up with their double and triple bonds! (This picture was made by Mr. Steven Malouff at http://malouffbioblog.wordpress.com).

 

Ways to get a DNA Test: There a wide range of explanations why you should get a DNA test. Even though we quite often notice DNA testing utilized in Television set ‘forensics’ demonstrates, among the reasons getting a DNA test would be to determine paternity. DNA paternity testing effectively can determine if the guy may be the papa of your certain youngster. DNA maternal checks as well as brother exams can be found. This sort of considering ancestry and genealogy as well as racial sources, several DNA labs right now offer you DNA roots tests. Should you be thinking how you can get a DNA test, you will discover many DNA labs on-line. You can find surely walk-in DNA labs spread across the nation, however employing an online DNA testing company is probably the easiest approaches to get a DNA test.

Nearly all assessment regarding connections, similar to paternity, maternal dna and also siblingship, can be split up into DNA testing for satisfaction and also DNA testing for court proceedings. It is possible to get a DNA test pertaining to comfort very easily. The charge is generally decrease and you may accumulate your personal DNA samples your self in your own home. In case the DNA analyze email address details are to use inside lawful scenarios, then it is crucial that you acquire legitimately admissible DNA testing through the research laboratory. Pertaining to DNA test results to get acknowledged by the court docket, DNA samples should be obtained with a fairly neutral alternative party. The 3rd get together perhaps there is to substantiate the actual personality involving the DNA contributor also to be sure that sequence regarding custodianship guidelines are usually noticed.

When the DNA biological materials tend to be gathered, they may be delivered on the research laboratory with regard to examination. DNA test results can usually end up being gotten within only several trading days. To have an additional payment, a number of DNA labs give you a 3 day time transformation regarding examination outcomes. Check email address particulars are generally sent for the receiver. Several on the web DNA labs supply on-line final results.

The way your outcomes can look be determined by the DNA examination obtained. By way of example, inside a DNA paternity test, the actual claimed dad is actually sometimes omitted you aren’t ruled out. Paternity along with maternal dna check present definite final results. DNA siblingship assessments will be more intricate as well as the benefits are usually in are a share probability of connection. DNA genealogy screening benefits differ by simply supplier. In every case, you want to do several online investigation ahead of time moment therefore you will know that this check you have obtained provides some benefit

DNA Reproduction:  Now that we know how to create the DNA and how we use it…What comes next? Well that can be answered with Replication. Eventually DNA is going to have to be made again and copy itself. So let us begin with how we break down a Piece of DNA. An Enzyme comes in and starts to cut apart the strand down the middle by cutting the bases. It breaks in the middle because it is the weakest part of the strand. Once this process is complete we get two strands of nucleotides. These then run off and find another strand that is in this cloud of nucleotides and start to connect with a different one that fits its “code”, and thus forming 2 completely new DNA stands. Now for those of you who learn from seeing…please visit this website that shows us this process through pictures.

So, with all of this discussed, is DNA really that complicated? It’s just a ton of small simple things (Nucleotides) stuck together into one GIGANTIC thing that can be used for tons of things! But it is also amazing that within these billions of Nucleotides, if just 1 is changed…our entire human body could be changed drastically!! I think I can easily say that DNA is one of the most amazing things about us humans and anything else that lives. I hope I have made it easier for you to understand what DNA is and how we use it!