Introduction to DNA and Genetics

Introduction to DNA and Genetics Genetics is the study of the qualities that are inherited and transmitted to the offspring from the parents during reproduction. Parents pass traits to their offspring, making the basis of heredity. The inherited traits are coded for in genes, which are the inherited elements. Genes are the functional units of DNA. Through genetics, biologists and other scientists get to understand the processes and principles of heredity, genetic variation and genes. Genetics is of great interest in the contemporary society. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, a lot of information about genetics has been exposed that is essential to the understanding of the human health. Understanding of the genome and mutations that affect it has led to an explanation of genetically inherited traits. These characteristics were previously mysterious and could not be contained as drugs could not be developed against them. The information gained from genetics has aided the research into these diseases. It has also opened a window to the possibility of finding a cure for the deadly cancer diseases (Sack, 2008). The building block of all genetic concepts is DNA. DNA is one of the nucleic acids which stores hereditary or genetic information. It is found in the nucleus in eukaryotic organisms and the cytoplasm in the prokaryotic organisms. DNA is composed of nucleotides, which are composed of sugar, a phosphate group and a base. The DNA sugar is deoxyribose sugar. There are four essential bases in the structure of DNA. From the four bases, the numerous different sequences arise which lead to the differences observed among organisms. The bases are Thymine, Adenine, Guanine and Cytosine. The nucleotides bond to each other by a phosphor-diester bond, leading to a ladder-like double helix structure. The double helix structure is formed by the pairing of anti-parallel strands of DNA. The nucleotide bases from the two strands bind to each other through hydrogen bonds. Thymine pairs with Adenine and Guanine pairs with Cytosine (Hawley, 2010). The DNA is divided into functional regions called genes. Genes have varying sizes, from a few hundred DNA bases to more than two million bases. The genes code for the traits expressed by each individual. Each gene has specific sets of instructions that code for particular proteins or protein functions. The nucleotide sequence of each gene forms the genetic sequence, which is crucial in the central dogma. The central dogma explains that the phenotypic appearance of an individual is a characteristic of their DNA. From the DNA sequence, RNA (another nucleotide) can transcribe and translate the information into proteins. The proteins are the building structure of the body. Therefore, the protein that is expressed in the DNA is the one that will be manufactured and expressed physically as the structure of the individual (Hawley 2010, Sack, 2008). Genes are found in packaged DNA sets called chromosomes. Each chromosome has millions of DNA bases, from fifty to two hundred million in number. Many genes make a chromosome. The chromosomes are the means of transferring genetic information from the parents to the offspring. They are more complex as they are made up of the genes and binding proteins know as histones. The DNA is usually tightly wound around each of the proteins. Each organism has a specific number of chromosomes, which if exceeded or reduced result in an abnormality. The human beings have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes (46 chromosomes). One of the pairs is the sex chromosomes (XX for female and XY for male). The other twenty-two pairs of chromosomes are autosomes (Hawley 2010, Sack 2008). Traits are inherited from both parents following the Mendelian inheritance laws. The genetic makeup of an individual (genotype) is made of two alleles of each gene. An allele is a copy of a gene that codes for the same trait. Each allele is inherited from either parent. If the alleles are identical, they are called homozygous, and if they are not identical, they are heterozygous. If alleles are indeed identical, they have similar coding sequences at that particular locus. Each gene has a dominant allele that will be expressed in a case of the presence of a heterozygous pair of the alleles (Jobling, Hurles, Tyler-Smith, 2013). The genetic material of the human cells (and other eukaryotic cells) except the red blood cells is found in the nucleus. The RBC do not have a nucleus and hence do not carry genetic information. However, some organelles such as the mitochondria and the chloroplasts have their DNA. The organelles contain multiple copies of small chromosomes and are only inherited from the mother. They are found in the ovum during fertilization as the sperm cell only contributes the nuclear genetic information. The exact location of a gene on a chromosome is called a locus. There are fifty thousand to hundred thousands of genes in the human genome. However, the DNA in the genes is only approximately 2% of the total genomic DNA. Much of the information on the non-coding DNA has not yet unearthed, despite successfully completing the human genome project (Hawley, 2010). Formerly called junk DNA, the non-coding DNA is increasingly being considered to be of essential function in the central dogma. Scientists are, however, working to find out the exact role of the DNA, which has so far remained elusive. The locus of each gene has enabled the formation of the genetic map, as more than 13,000 genetic sites have been correctly identified (Sack, 2008). The genetic maps have enabled the study of different inherited diseases. The particular location of the gene(s) responsible for the conditions can be identified and studied. The development of the gene maps makes it faster, cheaper and more practical for scientists to identify and diagnose a given genetic disease. Genetic mapping has made it possible to identify most hereditary diseases such as cystic fibrosis, enabling adequate pharmaceutical research to be carried out on them. Hereditary diseases occur as a result of a mutation in the genes that code for given proteins. The mutation can either occur through deletions, substitutions or insertions of DNA bases at certain points leading to frameshifts in the structure of the gene. These frameshifts will result in coding for abnormal or non-functioning proteins (Loewe, 2008). Without these proteins to act in their usual roles, the body faces challenges adapting to situations that require the proteins. For example, the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is as a result of a deletion in a gene that codes for an important muscle protein, dystrophin. The absence of dystrophin results to muscle weakness and inevitable early death (Behrman, Kliegman, Jenson, 2011). However, some mutations are as a result of adaptation. For example, the mutation to cause sickle red blood cells was an adaptation to prevent malaria in the tropics. Genetics has not only enabled us to understand more about ourselves, but has also given us more information about our origins. Evolutionary genetics allows the comparison of genetic data of proteins from different organisms and establishing where they diverged or converged in the evolutionary tree. With the development of technology and computers, the branch of bioinformatics has explored worlds unknown before. Accurate data on genetic sequences has been compared with previous generations to establish the relationships between human beings and other organisms (Jobling, Hurles, Tyler-Smith, 2013). With the understanding of the past and evolution, genetics helps us to predict the future. The future of genetics is one of the exciting branches of science that has fascinated many biologists. Genetics is not without its shortcomings. The cloning debates and other ethical issues have brought the in-depth study and application of genetics into questions. The knowledge of Genetics might tempt scientists to try to act God in establishing human beings without blemish. The cloning of human being is also a much-debated question as well as the issues of personalized medicine. The study of the genetics of an individual also means that one gets to understand the genetics of the parents, raising ethical questions about the informed consent. Ethical dilemmas also arise when two carrier parents are expecting a child who has been diagnosed with the disease. Do they end the pregnancy or wait for the baby to be born and suffer? In some instances, genetics has led to more questions than answers (Fulda, Lykens, 2006). Despite its shortcoming, genetics opened multiple doors in the contemporary science. References: Behrman, R. E., Kliegman, R., Jenson, H. B. (2011). Nelson textbook of pediatrics. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co. Fulda, K. G., Lykens, K. (2006). Ethical issues in predictive genetic testing: a public health perspective. Journal of medical ethics, 32(3), 143-147. Hawley, R. S. (2010). HUMAN GENOME. Academic Press. Jobling, M., Hurles, M., Tyler-Smith, C. (2013). Human evolutionary genetics: origins, peoples disease. Garland Science. Sack, G. H. (2008). Genetics. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical.

The Importance of Being Earnest :: Comedy Irony Papers

The Importance of Being Earnest ALGERNON. You have always told me it was Ernest. I have introduced you to every one as Ernest. You answer to the name of Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd your saying that your name isn't Ernest. It's on your cards. Here is one of them. [Taking it from case.] 'Mr. Ernest Worthing, B. 4, The Albany.' I'll keep this as a proof that your name is Ernest if ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to Gwendolen, or to any one else. [Puts the card in his pocket.] JACK. Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to me in the country. ALGERNON. Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at once. JACK. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn't a dentist. It produces a false impression. ALGERNON. Well, that is exactly what dentists always do. Now, go on! Tell me the whole thing. I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist; and I am quite sure of it now. JACK. Bunburyist? What on earth do you mean by a Bunburyist? ALGERNON. I'll reveal to you the meaning of that incomparable expression as soon as you are kind enough to inform me why you are Ernest in town and Jack in the country. JACK. Well, produce my cigarette case first. ALGERNON. Here it is. [Hands cigarette case.] Now produce your explanation, and pray make it improbable. [Sits on sofa.] JACK. My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact it's perfectly ordinary. Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his will guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess, Miss Prism. ALGERNON. Where in that place in the country, by the way? JACK. That is nothing to you, dear boy.

Motorcycle Diaries Film Exam Essay

The movie Motorcycle Diaries is about to friends Ernesto Guevara who has the nickname â€Å"fuser† and Alberto Granado. Ernesto is a doctor in the process; he has taken a break from his studies to go on a trip, and Alberto is a biochemist. These two friends set off on a journey that starts off in Buenos Aries to travel across the whole region of South America on a motorcycle. From the beginning these two friends have the same idea, to go have fun and just have sex with the beautiful women they come across on the way. With many troubles to come they find themselves with new challenges that they must overcome. Through out the journey they begin to realize that there is more going on through out the world than what is seen by the human eye. Motorcycle diaries showed the neo-colonialist take over of foreign countries and powers. The example that showed this was that of the American mining company: Anaconda mining company. The reason for the American mining company to go to South America was because they can find cheap labor as well as cheap raw materials because the country needs to find a way to enhance its own economic struggles. By finding a country that is in dire need to raise some funds for themselves the companies see a chance to corrupt the deal, whether it being by making child labor, low wages, no benefits, and countless others. It also showed the traditional colonialism because from the anaconda mining company the workers that choose which men they will allow to work place themselves as a higher power so they are creating hierarchies, they are coming from an other country: taking the land to use for their needs, and taking the raw materials from the foreign country to grow for their own nation. It is basically both forms of colonialism combined. In the beginning of the movie Ernesto is only occupied with one thing, to have sex with beauties around South America; he is a sex addict sort of speak. Ernesto being born into a family that is well off has a good house, healthy family, and almost no problems to worry about. In the start of the travel he experiences just mechanical problems with the motorcycle and emotional conflicts with Alberto. When the bike constantly starts to break down they are forced to hitchhike on the back of trucks filled with poor indigenous natives, sees how they have to sleep, how they live and the basic problems of being poor. More through out their travel Ernesto instead of just realizing what is going on with the poor people he begins to care and wonder. While he is in a village he is asked to treat a sick woman even though he takes a look at her and knows that he can not do anything he leaves her medicine to try and help her for at least a little while. He begins to ask everyone he meets what has happened to his or her village and as to him or her as well. While staying with some of the people who are not in the greatest place he reads stories and books written from the poor persons point of view and own experiences. With the care towards the people with the least he starts to join the poor and sick. The first action that leads to this is when he gives his 15 dollars he has received from his ex girlfriend to a homeless and poor couple that has to keep traveling to get work to survive. His final step through the journey was that he joined the people who have close to nothing, in a figurative sense. While at the institute for the sick patients he beings to bond with them even more, starts talking to the sick patients about his personal life and giving them surgeries that will help them recover. He realizes that through out the world there is many boundaries that have been created but not by companies but by mankind themselves. To prove that these boundaries can be broken on the night of his birthday he decides to swim across a huge river separating the sick and the healthy to celebrate with them all; brining them together.

William Warren V. Warren Court - 1496 Words

Distinctive within American history, the duration in which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1953 to 1969) witnessed a vigorous court fearless to challenge controversial issues. Changing the way Americans today perceive their relationship with their government, an activist court did much to expand the rights of the individual and the power of the federal government to enforce civil rights legislation. Not since then has the Supreme Court generated so much power in shaping American culture. And because of all what Earl Warren has done he is remembered as one of the most influential Supreme Court Justices in American history. Through all the cases during Earl Warren’s tenure I strongly believe that†¦show more content†¦The Warren Court decided a number of important constitutional issues during its time and those decisions continue to influence our daily lives (Urofsky 253). Warren was appointed Chief Justice in 1953 by Presiden t Eisenhower (Earl Warren Biography). During his 16-year tenure, he was one of the most influential advocates for social progress in the United States. During his term he dealt with controversial cases on civil rights and civil liberties and the very nature of the political system. According to Lucas Powe in The Warren Court and American Politics, the Warren Court created the image of the Supreme Court as a revolutionary body, a powerful force for social change. Even though Warren clearly was not the most scholarly justice on the Court his leadership abilities and skill as a statesman enabled him to be an extremely effective Chief Justice. The decisions made in the Warren court cases affected America back in the day and still affect us till this day. How it changed the American Society The Warren Court was one of the most consequential in American history. It changed the american society by expanding civil rights and civil liberties in many important ways. With civil rights, the Warren Court s biggest decision was Brown v. Board of Education. That decision ended legal segregation and helped set the Civil Rights Movement in