DNA Model

You, too, can follow in the footsteps of Watson and Crick. This quarter’s project is to design and build a model of DNA out of materials that you might find at home.

This project has two parts:

Part I: The Model

I would suggest using wire or pipe cleaners as a framework, and using beads, candies with holes, colored marshmallows, or some other item that you can support on the framework to represent sugars, phosphate groups, and the four nitrogenous bases. That means you need six different colors or shapes, and a way to hold them together and support them. You also need to show that the DNA strands are anti-parallel and that they are joined by the appropriate number of bonds between bases. Bases must also be attached to the sugars, not the phosphates, and base pairing rules must be followed.

·  You must have at least 20 nitrogen bases represented in the model

·  At least one of each type of nitrogen base must be present in the model

·  The model must show the helical shape of DNA.

Here is a great site where you can explore the molecule http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/

Part II: The Paper

Create a one page paper with title page (Name, Period, Date) that explains in detail the following (There should be 4 sections with the following headings within your paper):

A.  Differences between DNA and RNA (There are at least 3 but you could include a 4th one!) plus the components of a DNA nucleotide.

B.  Transcription

1.  What is transcription

2.  Where does it takes place

3.  What is the reason for it

C.  Translation

1.  What is translation

2.  Where does it takes place

3.  What is the reason for it

D.  Role of:

1.  mRNA

2.  tRNA

3.  rRNA

** Make sure you do not plagerize!!