Thursday, October 31, 2013

DNA Replication W00T

So we made DNA in class. This was...pretty difficult to say the least, as it involved a lot of cutting.
Here's the gist of it though, it involves 5 pretty cool enzymes that all read 3'-5'.
HELICASE: starts at the origin of replication and unzips the DNA.
RNA PRIMASE: lays down a few RNA nucleotides at the origin of replication.
DNA POLYMERASE III: lays down DNA nucleotides and creates a lagging and leading strand.
DNA POLYMERASE I: replaces the RNA nucleotides with DNA nucleotides
LIGASE: connects all the Okazaki fragments and finishes the process!
Now imagine this: we did all these steps with paper, cutting and taping and failing. I would say we now have a much deeper appreciation for DNA though, and we definitely know what all the enzymes do!

No comments:

Post a Comment