Central Dogma of Molecular Biology Molecular Biology Laboratory, Biological Sciences Department College of Science and computer Sciences, De La Sale University-Disarming The central dogma of biology holds that genetic information normally flows from DNA to RNA to protein. In the experiment, DNA and RNA bead kits were used. Different colored beads correspond to different nitrogenous bases, sugars and phosphates. Different structures of DNA and RNA were formed based on the sequences that were given.DNA contains the complete genetic information that defines the structure and function of an organism. Proteins are formed using the genetic code of the DNA. Three different processes are responsible for the inheritance of genetic information and for its conversion from one form to another: 1 . Replication: a double stranded nucleic acid is duplicated to give identical copies.
This process perpetuates the genetic information. 2. Transcription: a DNA segment that constitutes a gene is read and transcribed into single stranded sequence of RNA.The RNA moves from the coleus into the cytoplasm.
3. Translation: the RNA sequence is translated into a sequence of amino acids as the protein is formed. During translation, the ribosome reads three bases (a code) at a time from the RNA and translates them into one amino acid. The central dogma of molecular biology deals with the detailed residue- by-residue transfer of sequential information. It states that such information cannot be transferred back from protein to either protein or nucleic acid. Crick, 1958) In other words, once information gets into protein, it can’t flow back to nucleic acid. Prokaryote and eukaryote mainly undergo these processes but differ in how they perform these mechanisms.
This activity aims to achieve the following objectives: 1. Demonstrate the processes of replication, transcription and translation. 2. To be able to identify the enzymes, substrates and materials needed for each processes to occur. DNA and RNA bead kits were used for this experiment.In the DNA kit: red beads corresponds to the phosphates, white beads for didgeridoos sugar, blue beads for cytosine, green beads for guanine, orange beads for adenine and yellow beads for hymen. In the RNA kit all are in the same color except yellow beads that represent thymine were replaced by purple beads for Oracular. The didgeridoos represented by the white bead was also changed with pink beads that represent ribose sugar.
Hydrogen bonds are represented by small plastic rods. Enzymes were also represented by different shapes of beads.