Download Response to Environment_01_Model Checklist

Name: __________________________________________________________Date: _________________
Checklist for Modeling Cell Division in Response to the Environment: Draft DUE Tuesday, Feb 15, 2010
Remember to just whip out a few pieces of regular sized paper, a pencil, and create your story. Feel free to
color it as you like to help you to study better, but I won’t be grading that. I only need to be able to read it and
see that all of the necessary information is on there, so please make it neat. Also, don’t put it on any less then
two sides and no more than 4 sides of paper. To save paper you can use the front and back of a single piece of
paper (2 sides), but you might find that it’s hard to follow your story if you have to keep flipping over your
page, so you can use the front side of two pieces of paper – you decide. You can then staple your papers
together or tape them together in the way you would want them to be read.
In this model you will concentrate on telling a story of how a cell grows and divides in response to its
environment. Tell it as you would tell a colleague interested in how this aspect of biology works. The objective
of the poster is to help you to learn how cells grow and divide in response to their environment through signal
transduction, transcription, translation, DNA replication, and the cell cycle by telling a story.
One suggestion of how your story might flow is written below. Use this as a guide to write your story in
both pictures and words.
1) A signal molecule on the outside of the cell binds to a membrane receptor protein on the cell’s plasma
membrane.
2) This event triggers a signal transduction pathway inside the cell that causes the cell to enter the cell cycle by
activating gene transcription (include a diagram of the cell cycle off to the side).
[During the G1 and G2 phases of interphase the cell must double everything in its cytoplasm. It does this by
doubling its number of proteins that can then work to double the number of its organelles. It doubles the
number of its proteins through the activation of the genes that code for the proteins that the cell needs.
(Remember Beadle and Tatum? One gene – One enzyme! So the cell needs to activate all of the different
genes that are needed to make all of the different proteins in a cell.)]
3) So, during interphase, that initial signal transduction pathway activates gene transcription inside the nucleus
that results in the production of all these different mRNAs. Show the details of a generic example either in your
story or off to the side.
4) In the cytoplasm, ribosomes then translate all of these different mRNAs into all of the different proteins that
can then go on to do their jobs in the cell. Show the details of a generic example either in your story or off to the
side.
[Not only does the cell have to double all of its proteins and organelles, but it also has to duplicate its DNA so
that each daughter cell has an exact copy of its genetic instructions.]
5) During the S phase of interphase, all of the cell’s DNA is duplicated through the process called DNA
replication. Show the details of a generic example either in your story or off to the side.
[Once all of the cytoplasm and DNA have been duplicated, the cell can now begin to divide.]
6) The cell now enters the Mitotic phase, and through a series of very carefully orchestrated events, the DNA is
now evenly divided among the two daughter cells and cytokinesis finishes the job by dividing up the cytoplasm.
Include a diagram of all the steps either in your story or off to the side. We now have two new daughter cells
that carry the exact same genetic material as the parental cell …all thanks to that initial signal molecule.
OK, so let’s get started! Here is a checklist of the following terms and concepts that you should include in your
story of how a cell divides in response to the environment.
 A picture that tells the story outlined above. (6 points)
Signal Transduction: (2 points)
 Signal molecule
 Plasma membrane
 Membrane receptor
protein
 Signal transduction
pathway
 Transcription factor
 Nuclear membrane
 DNA
Cell Cycle: (2 points)
 Diagram of the cell cycle
o Interphase
 G1, S, G2 phases
o Mitotic phase (M phase)
 A description of what happens in each phase
An example of Transcription: (2 points)
 DNA (G,A,T,C)
 RNA (G,A,U,C)
 RNA polymerase
 promoter
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An example of Translation: (2 points)
 mRNA
 tRNA
 amino acids
 codon
 anticodon
 ribosome
gene
terminator
cap
tail
An example of DNA Replication: (2 points)
 DNA (G,A,T,C)
 DNA polymerase
 origin of replication
 parental strand
A complete picture of Mitosis: (4 points)
 Prophase
 Metaphase
 Anaphase
 Telophase and
Cytokinesis
Score:
/20
Comments:
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plasma membrane
nuclear membrane
sister chromatids
centromeres
centrosomes
 introns
 nucleus
 polypeptide
 cytoplasm
 daughter strand
 mitotic spindle
 daughter chromosomes
 cleavage furrow