Expert: Florence M Rollwagen - 3/16/2009

Question
i have a series of questions 1. Once mRNA has been made, the copy needs to be translated. How does the translation take place? and who participates in it? 2. what are the three kinds of enzymes and how do they affect regulation of protein synthesis? 3. what are mutations and can they happen and is there a way to correct them? 4. what are the five modes of DNA transfer.

Answer
Hi Chris:  Thanks for your question.

Although this sounds like a homework question to me, here’s a link you can use:

1 & 2.  RNA transcription and translation:  http://vcell.ndsu.edu/animations/

On the left side there is a panel with the various animations.  You can look up mRNA processing, transcription and translation.  Here is also a great game you can play: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/transcribe/

3.  Mutations:

Mutations are changes in the DNA code.  Because the DNA is read in groups of 3 for translation (see above), any change in the order of the bases can cause a misread of the code:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/archive/mutations/

4.  As for 5 modes of DNA transfer, I don’t know 5.  In microbiology we use only 3:  transfection, transduction and transformation.

Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transduction_(genetics)

I might also add that everything you need to know about DNA, RNA and genetics can be found at the University of Utah site:  http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

I use this site extensively in my classes, the students like the animations.


Hope this helps!

FM Rollwagen, PhD