From Genotype to Phenotype

We know that our genotype helps to determine our phenotype. I think that it makes sense to originally think about things backwards.

phenotype <= chemical reactions in cell <= enzymes in the cell <= order of amino acids in proteins <= order of nucleotides in DNA.

Genetic information in DNA is converted to information in mRNA by the process of transcription and information in mRNA is used to determine the order of amino acids in a protein.

Website

I encourage you all to spend some time looking at the LearnGenetics website created by the University of Utah. Consider this website to be your interactive textbook for this portion of the class.

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

I suggest you examine the following sections in detail.

Tour of the Basics
DNA to Protein

The other sections are cool as well and they will help you to understand how our knowledge about genes to phenotype can be applied.

Video

This video does a pretty good job of discussing the processes of transcription and translation (but goes into just a bit more detail than required in this class).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynmxwqiv7j8&feature=related

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, a fully engaged student should be able to

1) discuss the structure of the three important macromolecules (DNA, RNA, and proteins) and identify their subunits.

2)  briefly discuss the process of genetic replication

3) briefly discuss the process of translation and transcription

4) if provided with the DNA sequence of a gene determine (a) the order of bases in the complementary strand of DNA, (b) the order of bases in the complementary strand of mRNA, and (c) determine the order of bases in the anticodon in the complementary tRNA and which amino acid should be attached to that tRNA.