Day 14: DNA and Chapter 6

In class we went over the structure of DNA and things like how Guanine (G) is always bonded with Cytosine (C) and how adenine (A) is always bonded with thymine (T). The bonds between  C and G and A and T are intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Double class rings such as guanine and adenine form are classified as purines. Pyrmides are referring to the single ring class such as thymine and cystosine.

For Homework we read chapter 6 of The Survival of the Sickest.

I learned that Edward Jenner from England was the first person to create a vaccine. He noticed that in milkmaids that have cowpox they can be resistant to the disease small pox. He scraped a bit of the infection of cowpox and used it as a vaccine applied to resist small box. Less harmful viruses the body won't notice and it will stimulate immune systems to produce antibodies so when we are exposed to diseases we can defend ourselves. 3 billion pairs of nucleotides are also in zygotes to be able to construct humans. However, scientists discovered that 97% of DNA isn't actually building anything, they called this DNA "junk DNA." They thought that this DNA didn't do anything and was idle this was proved wrong and now we call this DNA "noncoding". It is critical for evolution but it doesn't actually build anything. 1/3 of our DNA can actually be a virus. We defined mutations primarily as a random shift in the sequencing when DNA was getting copied or mutations when there was radiation or powerful chemicals. We discovered that single genes actually do multiple jobs and if we kill off one then another will step in it's place. Barbara McClintock suggested that parts of the genome could actively trigger much larger shifts. DNA can be cut and pasted and mixed into a new sequence. These are called "jumping genes." DNA can be stressed to make changes by a challenge of survival. E coli is a good example of this because in an experiment  scientist starved the lactose intolerant bacteria of nothing but milk. In order for it to survive it went thru a genetic shift and mutated to be tolerant and survive. This is a hypermutation that is a increase in the mutation rate so the bacteria can produce faster. The Germ-Plasma theory is the division of all the cells in the body into two divisions. Germ Cells, which are cells that contain information that is inherited and Somatic Cells which is everything other than germ cells like red-blood cells. Mutations could never be passed thru somatic cells was a common vies, however some viruses are fond to be able to pass thru somatic to germ cells. Immune systems have antibody production which has a behavior of jumping genes. Once your body develops antibodies you will always have them. Like the antibodies that prevent you from catching measles a second time.