Download Protein Synthesis

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
2. Write in the complementary messenger RNA code that is a result of the transcription
process. Separate your individual codons with vertical lines.
mRNA: ___________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
3. 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.
4. Using the code chart for amino acids, write down your resulting amino acid order.
__Met – Thr – __________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Using the code chart for amino acids, write down your resulting amino acid order
using the color names.
_L.Pink- L. Orange-__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
6. 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: _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7. 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.
8. Did you have any “mutations” during the process? ____________
Analysis Questions:
9. What is transcription?
10. Where in the cell does transcription take place?
11. What is translation?
12. What is the site of protein synthesis?
13. What are ribosomes made up of?
14. In what ways does the RNA molecule differ from the DNA molecule?
15. How many nitrogen bases code for a single amino acid? What is this sequence called?
16. What is the “central dogma” of biology?
Applications
17. In the case of building this specific protein, a mutation might result in….
18. What is hair color an example of?
19. 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)
20. What would happen if a mutation caused a stop codon to appear too early in the
mRNA strain being translated by the ribosome?
Black
Sage
L. Yellow
Gold
Silver
Copper
Lime
Red
L. Purple
Navy
Teal
Hot Pink
Green
N. Yellow
L. Orange
Tan
L. Pink
Gray
Cyan
Hot Blue
White
Hot Orange
Hot Green