Hi Blog,
Today I have finished the 600 pages of GEB, 150 to go. It has been an amusing journey so far. The reason why I am writing this now, not after finishing the book, is because yesterday I finished a chapter which was such a fascinating experience that I must write something about it. The chapter was on Molecular Biology, specifically about the journey from DNA to proteins.
Now biology was a subject which about which I had made my mind long time ago. Never to go even near it. Never to talk about it. This chapter was able to shatter my these beliefs. I have come to know that biology, like any other, is very interesting. The beauty lies in understanding the human being at different levels, of which molecular biology is at one level.
So let's summarize what I have learned about DNA and proteins. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is unique and self-replicating. Also carries the genetic information. DNA resides in the nucleus of an atom. It is made up of nucleotide. Nucleotide is made up of three things: a phosphate group, one sugar group and one of four type of nitrogen bases. A twisted ladder like structure is made by bonding the nucleotide strands together with weak hydrogen bonds. This structure is actually called double helix. The sequence of four nitrogen bonds is interesting because it determines most of the features human beings have. For example sequence ATCGGT may mean blue eyes and sequence ATTCGG may mean brown.
Now these nitrogen bases are complimentary which means that C(cyostine) can only bond up with T(thymine) and A(adenine) with G(guanine) only.
So there are other characters involved in the journey from DNA to proteins. Those are DNA polymerase, mRNA, tRNA, amino acids, ribosomes. RNA stands for ribonucleic acid. It has one oxygen molecule which was missing in the DNA thus the name deoxy... Now I will take it step by step:
Step 1: DNA polymerase breaks the strand of DNA into two separate helix and makes two mRNA(messengerRNA) helix by adding the alternate free bases present in the nucleus. This process is called transcription. See the video for better understanding.
Step 2: mRNA travels outside the nucleus to cytoplasm.
Step 3: mRNA enters into a factory called as ribosome.
Step 4: Ribosomes take the mRNA helix and starts making protein by combining tRNA(transport) with mRNA one by one. Ribosomes separate amino acid from the tRNA and combine them to form a protein. There are 20 types of amino acids.
An interesting video on the journey from DNA to proteins:
Today I have finished the 600 pages of GEB, 150 to go. It has been an amusing journey so far. The reason why I am writing this now, not after finishing the book, is because yesterday I finished a chapter which was such a fascinating experience that I must write something about it. The chapter was on Molecular Biology, specifically about the journey from DNA to proteins.
Now biology was a subject which about which I had made my mind long time ago. Never to go even near it. Never to talk about it. This chapter was able to shatter my these beliefs. I have come to know that biology, like any other, is very interesting. The beauty lies in understanding the human being at different levels, of which molecular biology is at one level.
Now these nitrogen bases are complimentary which means that C(cyostine) can only bond up with T(thymine) and A(adenine) with G(guanine) only.
So there are other characters involved in the journey from DNA to proteins. Those are DNA polymerase, mRNA, tRNA, amino acids, ribosomes. RNA stands for ribonucleic acid. It has one oxygen molecule which was missing in the DNA thus the name deoxy... Now I will take it step by step:
Step 1: DNA polymerase breaks the strand of DNA into two separate helix and makes two mRNA(messengerRNA) helix by adding the alternate free bases present in the nucleus. This process is called transcription. See the video for better understanding.
Step 2: mRNA travels outside the nucleus to cytoplasm.
Step 3: mRNA enters into a factory called as ribosome.
Step 4: Ribosomes take the mRNA helix and starts making protein by combining tRNA(transport) with mRNA one by one. Ribosomes separate amino acid from the tRNA and combine them to form a protein. There are 20 types of amino acids.
An interesting video on the journey from DNA to proteins:
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