Protein Synthesis

building the protein responsible for golden blonde hair

Name______Date______

Purpose: To create a fictional protein, illustrated by a chain of colorful beads.

  1. Imagine that the following string of letters are nitrogen bases on one side of a DNA molecule. The DNA molecule has opened to this particular section of itself (called a gene) to allow a messenger RNA to be formed for the making of a protein that is responsible for golden blonde hair.

DNA:T A C T G T T G G C A A G C C C C T T C A A A A T C G T T A C A G G G G G A C G A T A A G C G A T A G T T A C C T A C T

  1. Write in the complementary messenger RNA code that is a result of the transcription process. Separate your individual codons with vertical lines.

mRNA:______

______

  1. The messenger RNA now takes this code through the nuclear membrane to the organelle that makes proteins, called the ______. There, ______RNA molecules bring ______, which are the building blocks of proteins. These connect together through peptide bonds to form a chain in the order of the code from the messenger RNA.
  2. Using the code chart for amino acids, write down your resulting amino acid order.

__Met – Thr – ______

______

  1. Using the code chart for amino acids, write down your resulting amino acid order using the color names.

_L.Pink- L. Orange-______

______

  1. Remember, the ______found on transfer RNA molecules ensure that the correct amino acid is added to the chain. Write in the complementary transfer RNA anticodons. Separate your individual anticodons with a line.

tRNA: ______

______

  1. Working one code at a time, make your protein (your chain of amino acids) using the beads and pipe cleaners.When you have your protein completed, have your teacher check it. If there are any errors, please go back and find your mistakes.
  1. Did you have any “mutations” during the process? ______

Analysis Questions:

  1. What is transcription?
  1. Where in the cell does transcription take place?
  1. What is translation?
  1. What is the site of protein synthesis?
  1. What are ribosomes made up of?
  1. In what ways doesthe RNA molecule differ from the DNA molecule?
  1. How many nitrogen bases code for a single amino acid? What is this sequence called?
  1. What is the “central dogma” of biology?

Applications

  1. In the case of building this specific protein, a mutation might result in….
  1. What is hair color an example of?
  1. What would happen to this blonde hair protein if the first DNA triplet was TTT instead of TAC? (Please note, light pink represents methionine, the “start” amino acid)
  1. What would happen if a mutation caused a stop codon to appear too early in the mRNA strain being translated by the ribosome?