Unit 5 Reflection 

This unit was about coping DNA, and translating it. It is called walking the dogma. We talked about the difference between DNA and RNA. RNA is single stranded and has ribose - not deoxyribose, and RNA contains unracil instead of thymine. Mutions was also brought up and we look at the different kinds of mutations, there were two main of mutations. One of which is called substitution, this is when one nucleotide is substituted for another. The second kind is called a frameshift mutation and in a frameshift mutation there are two kinds that branch off. Insertion (when an extra base pair is added to the code) and deletion (is when a base pair is left out of the code). I think my strength was based around mutations because I liked learning about how much a mutation could really effect you. Usually when I enjoy something I excel at it. We brushed over the topic as to why we should care about mutations. We said that it changes DNA - more specifically it changes proteins which are essential to life. Some diseases are caused by a change of a single base! Mutations in DNA can lead to cancer and they can create new genetic variation giving population new traits for natural selection to act on. We looked at gene expression and regulation. Gene expression is the process of a gene begin used to produce a gene project or phenotype. A gene regulation is a mechanism used by cells to increase or decrease the expression of a gene. This is where I ran into trouble as I feel it go a

lot harder trailing off into promoter, operons, and operaters. I learned that I am usually better at something that I enjoy and can ask a lot of questions, after I watch the vodcast I usually find myself pondering over questions i've asked myself. I think that I have grown as I biology student but I have also learned a lot more about myself and my learning style.