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Week 10 Assignment

Due at 11:59 pm, Nov 11

1) Name all possible types of causes of transient and permanent genetic mutations. Use examples whenever necessary.
Transient mutations: when natural mutation occurs, it is not a big concern since most times the cell can produce repairing enzymes to identify the mistake and fix the errors. Therefore these mutations are known as transient mutations. Permanent mutations: when a cell is under stress (i.e. exposer to drugs or viral attacks) there wont be enough energy to feed the enzymes involved in fixing mistakes, therefore these mistakes can become known as permanent mutations. Which can cause a changed in gene sequence.
2) Explain how a mutation can be beneficial, harmful, neutral or lethal. Please provide appropriate examples.
Beneficial: chemicals or biological agents in some cases may e able to make bacterium resistant to certain drugs, or future viral attacks.
Harmful: most mutations are harmful but not deadly to the cell. a mutation may make a protein lose partial activity, which means it will take a bit longer to metabolize. Its not life threatening but the cell is now less efficient
Lethal: a nonsense mutation or frame shift mutations caused an essential protein to forget its function. For example in DNA gyrase DNAs cannot release the supercoils of chromosome to get ready for replication meaning that the cell cannot reproduce and will die off.
Neutral: the host does not notice the effect of the mutation if alteration to the amino acid is not essential to determine the proteins activity or structure.
3) Describe how proteins are made from DNA in a cell.
A cell puts a chain of amino acids together in the correct order, then it is taken into the cytoplasm the cell then decodes the instruction and makes copies of the protein which folds into shape.
4) What are the 3 methods of horizontal gene transfer? How do they differ?
In vitro transformation: scientists use it to increase certain traits in plants and fruits, which is useful for agriculture.
Transduction: this is the process when a replicating virus delivers foreign DNA to the recipient cell. in a natural setting, transduction only occurs between closely related species
Bacterial conjugation: most common natural method for bacteria to spread antibiotic resistance across species. It involves 2 cells, the donor bacterium with the F plasmid DNA and conjugative sex pilus and the recipient bacterium. During conjugation, the tube structure extends to allow the donor cell to connect to the recipient cell’s membrane and pass on the plasmid.
5) Which method of horizontal gene transfer is commonly practiced in genetic engineering? Which one is used for gene therapy?
The most common method practiced in genetic engineering is In vitro. Transduction is used for gene therapy
6) Explain why it is important to finish the entire course of antibiotics even after the symptoms are gone.
If you stop treatment prematurely, some bacteria are left alive. And they may mutate or swap genes with other bacteria in your body that are already resistant to this antibiotic.
7) Describe 3 different situations that a non-resistant E.