Download Teacher practical Make your own protein Specification references

B13.6
Teacher practical
Make your own protein
Specification references
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6.1.5 DNA structure
WS 1.2
Learning outcomes
After completing this worksheet, students should be able to:
 show how a protein is produced inside the cell
 show how a mutation can affect the function of a protein.
Aims
The aim of this activity is to provide a kinaesthetic experience to help students
visualise a complex process.
Teacher notes
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Provide students with a worksheet that explains how to build proteins using a
DNA template.
You will need to provide the DNA template and table to read the codons. One
is supplied in the example data below, but could be customised to suit your
equipment.
You could introduce complexity by having a sense strand and non-sense
strand, and explaining that the cell reads one strand. You could also introduce
a stop codon.
The students then build a protein.
Discuss the concept of mutations if they have not yet been mentioned.
The students then use a second strand of DNA with a single mutation, which
substitutes one coloured bead for another. The students will then be unable to
bend and fold the protein, thus illustrating the change in shape affecting the
structure (and function) of the protein.
Example data
DNA strand
T
T
A
G
T
A
A
A
T
T
C
C
© Oxford University Press 2016
G
T
T
G
A
T
G
T
T
T
A
A
T
G
T
T
A
C
G
T
A
T
C
A
www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements
This resource sheet may have been changed from the original.
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B13.6
Teacher practical
Table showing codons to possible bead colour.
Codon
Possible bead colour
Bonding information
TGT
Blue
Bonds with ATG (pink)
TTA
Green
CGT
Purple
ATG
Pink
GTA
Red
ATC
Yellow
Bonds with TGT (blue)
Mutated DNA strand
T
T
A
A
T
C
G
T
A
G
T
A
A
C
G
T
A
A
T
C
T
G
T
T
T
A
T
C
T
T
A
C
G
T
A
T
Answers
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Three
Minimum number is 156
The sequence of bases in the DNA determines the sequence of the amino acids.
(1 mark)
(1 mark)
(1 mark)
Student follow-up
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A mutation is a change in the base sequence of DNA.
a The mutation can change an amino acid in the protein chain. This can
affect the bending and folding of the protein, changing its shape.
b The function of the protein depends on its shape, for example, the active site
shape in an enzyme. If you change the shape, you change the function.
Some mutations do not affect the function of a protein because not all of the
amino acids will be involved in the bending and folding (or they do not affect it).
This will then have less impact on the shape, so the function is not affected.
(1 mark)
(2 marks)
(2 marks)
(2 marks)
Additional support
Suggest that students draw lines between each codon before they start.
© Oxford University Press 2016
www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements
This resource sheet may have been changed from the original.
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B13.6
Teacher practical
Technician notes
Equipment
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Coloured beads (at least six different colours)
String
Diagram of a strand of DNA with around 36 base pairs
Table that shows the colours of the bead coded for by different codons.
© Oxford University Press 2016
www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements
This resource sheet may have been changed from the original.
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