MUTANT BEES

Purpose

Tobuildamodelofabeeusingcodedinstructions.

Toidentifythedifferenteffectsthatmutationsmayhave onanorganism(positive,negativeorneutral).

Background

DNAisasetofcodedinstructionsformakingalltheproteinsinourbodies.Ituses4bases,represented byA,T,CandG,tocodealltheinformationcontainedinourDNA.Thereareseveralstepstobreakingthecode.DNAis stuckinthenucleus,thereforeitfirstneedstobewritteninto aformthatcanberead outsidethenucleus:Thisstepiscalledtranscription.Thisnewform,RNA,leavesthenucleuswhereitisreadtomakeproteins.Thisiscalledtranslation.Thecodeisreadin3lettersegments(codons)tocreateaminoacids,thesmallestpartofproteins.

Sometimes mutationsoccurintheDNA.ThesearepermanentchangestotheDNAsequenceandmayhavedifferenteffectsontheorganism. Therearethreemajorkindsofmutations:

Substitution-Usuallyonebaseischangedinthesequence. Thesequencearoundthechangeisthesame.

Insertion-Extrabasesareaddedtothesequence. Thesurroundingsequenceisthesameafterthe

insertionends.

Deletion-Some basesareremoved.Thesurroundingsequenceisthesameaftertheinsertionends.Anexampleofeachkindofmutationfollows.Themutation'simpactonthe sequenceisunderlined.

Original:Substitution:Insertion:Deletion:

AMYGOTHERREDHATAMYGOTHERRODHATAMYGOTHISERREDHATAMYOTHERREDHAT

Inthis activity,youwillbegivencodonsandtheinstructionsthatcorrespondtoeachcodon.Yourtaskistofolloweachsetofinstructiontobuildyourownbee.Beware,yourneighbourmaynothavethesamesetofinstructionsasyou!

Materialsforeachgroup

•Threepipecleanersinthreedifferentcolours(oneeachofyellow,black,andbrown)

•Blackpom-pom

•Googlyeyes(oryoucanmakeyourownbee'seyes)

•Gluegun

•Paper(willbeusedtocreatewings)

•Scissors

·.,

Procedure

Usethesequenceyouaregiventobuildamodelofabee.Startby breakingthecorrectsequencebelowintothreeletterchunks(codons). Thenfind thematchingcodonsintheleftcolumnof thetableandplaceyourinstructionsintotheorderofthecorrectsequence. Beware,theinstructionsinthetablearenotinorder,soyouwillneedthesequencetotellyouwhatsetofinstructionscomenext!

Correctsequence:

GTGTAATGCCCGCAATGGCGTCTAGGG

';,

:..:..

..:.(

Bee#4

.:.::..,.

Procedure

Usethesequenceyouaregiven tobuildamodelofabee.Startbybreakingthecorrectsequencebelowintothreeletterchunks(codons).Thenfindthematchingcodonsintheleftcolumnofthetableandplaceyourinstructionsintotheorderofthecorrectsequence. Beware,theinstructionsinthetablearenotinorder,soyouwillneedthesequencetotellyouwhatsetofinstructionscomenext!

Correctsequence:

ATGTAATGCCCGCAATGGCGTCTA

.,

-

Bee# 3

. ./

Procedure

Usethesequenceyouaregiven tobuildamodelofabee.Startbybreakingthecorrectsequencebelowintothreeletterchunks(codons).Thenfindthematchingcodonsintheleftcolumnofthetableandplaceyourinstructionsintotheorderofthecorrectsequence. Beware,theinstructionsinthe tableareatinorder,soyouwillneedthesequencetotellyouwhatsetofinstructionscomenext!

Correctsequence:

ATGTAATGCCCGCAATGGCGTCGACTAGGG
·.

,·,-

Bee#2

Procedure

Usethesequenceyouaregiventobuildamodelofabee.Startbybreakingthecorrectsequencebelowintothreeletterchunks(codons).Thenfindthematchingcodonsintheleftcolumnofthetableandplaceyourinstructionsintothe orderofthecorrectsequence. Beware,theinstructionsinthetablearenotinorder,soyouwillneedthesequencetotellyouwhatsetofinstructionscomenext!

Correctsequence:

ATGTAATGCCCGCAATGGCGTCTAGGG

'-..

Bee#1

Answer Key!!!!

Bee# / BeeProduct
1 / Healthy(wildtype)bee
2 / Anextracodonhasbeeninsertedandthisproducesabeemutantwithtwopairsofantennae(steps#8and9 havebeenchangedtosteps#9and10becauseanextra
CGT has beenaddedintotheDNAsequence).
3 / Thereisadeletionthatproducesabeewithnowings(step#9ismissing.Thereisno
GGGcodon).
4 / ThereisaDNAbasesubstitutionthatresultsinaredandblackbee(instep#1ATGis
-
changedtoGTG).

Note:Thebee#islocatedon thestudentworksheet,below theinstructionchart,ontherightside.

PostActivityDiscussion

•Aftertheactivity,studentscancomparetheirbeeproducts.Tohelpthemdothis,writetheDNAsequencesfromtheproceduralstepsontheboard.

•Then,thestudentscancomparethehealthy(wildtype)DNAsequencestothesequencesfromthesickbeescontainingtheDNAmutations.

•AskstudentstocomparetheDNAsequences.IstheirbeehealthyordoesithaveaDNAmutation?Ifithasamutation,whattypeisit?

•Askstudents topredicttheoutcomesofthemutationtheirbeehas.Isthemutationpositive,negative,orneutral?Willthemutationhave aneffectonthebee'shealth?Havethemexplain theiranswers.

•StudentscanalsodiscusstherelationshipbetweenDNA,genes,andproteins.

•Askstudentstothenextrapolatethisactivityand whattheylearnedtohumanDNA.Do allmutationscausediseaseinhumans?

•Thiswrap-upactivitycanbedoneasadiscussion,oritcanbehandedinasa"ticketoutofthedoor"activity.

OPTIONAL:Glueapieceofpipecleanerontoyourbee'sbacksothatyoucanuseitasahookto hangonyourChristm'astreenextyear.

Tips & Tricks

•Beforeyouintroducethebeebuildingactivity,youmaywanttoreviewbeemorphologywiththeclass.Youcandothiswithamodelorwithanimageofabee.

•Itmayalsobehelpfultobrieflyreview:

Howtheinformation ingenesrelatestoproteins(DNA->RNA->proteins).

Thedifferenttypesofmutations(substitutions vs.additionsvs. deletions).

•Forthisactivity, studentscanworkonbuildingtheirownbeemutantsortheycanworkinpairs.

•Tellstudentsthattheirclassmateswillhavedifferentinstructionsandthatthereismorethanonetypeofbeemutanttobemade.

•Letthestudentsknowthateachstepcorrespondsto aDNAcodon.Someworksheetswillhavealloftheinstructions,whileothersmayhaveamodifiedsteportheymayevenbemissingastep.Thestudentswiththesemodifiedinstructionswillendupbuildingbeemutants.

•Dothefirstbee-buildingstepasaclass.

•Letthestudentsknowthattheywillhavetomaketheirownwings.Theycancutthese outfrompaperandgluethemontothebee'sthorax.

•Letthestudentsknowthattheywillhavetogluetheeyesontothebee'shead.

•Note:realhoneybeeshavetwosetsofwings-frontwingsandhindwings.Inflight,these twosetsofwingshooktogetherandworktogether.Forsimplicity,wewillgiveourbeesonesetof.wings,representingtwosetshookedtogetherforflight.