A visit to the ROM with a knowledgable tour guide left me bombarded with loads of stories of the lifestyles and population journeys of several creatures. One that really stood out to me was the special relationship between the clownfish and sea anenomes.
Symbiosis describes the relationship between the clownfish and sea anemones. They are the only fish that do not get stung by the tentacles of the sea anemone. Clownfish have a slimy mucus covering that protects them from the sea anemone. The clownfish and the sea anemone help each other survive in the ocean. The clownfish, while being provided with food, cleans away fish and algae leftovers from the anemone. Also, the sea anemones are given better water circulation because the clownfish fan their fins while swimming.
ROM Adventure
The Cove
Where is the dolphin slaughter taking place?
The main character goes to the IWC and does what at the end?
That's tough. Marineland has made a statement concerning this and whether it's true or not, it's a bit comforting.
Sharkwater/Shark Fins
The film Sharkwater does an incredible job of showing sharks as they really are: intelligent and powerful creatures who, like everything else on earth, just want to survive.
Sharkwater shows that it is in our own best interest to protect sharks. For the first time in the 450 billion years that sharks have been on this planet, there are certain species of sharks that are facing serious threats of extinction. Once again, human beings plow through other life in pursuit of the almighty dollar without acknowledging the long term consequences. The planet consists of two-thirds water and this water contains a lot of plankton that produces most of the planet's oxygen. The ocean is filled with fish that survive on plankton and the shark is the ocean's leading predator of these plankton eaters. If we kill off all the sharks, then the other fish will eliminate the plankton, which means a decreasing production of oxygen for us to breathe. Why do we always assume that our actions have no consequence? And why do we always put money ahead of preservation?
It's absolutely ridiculous that there is so much ecological unrest just for soup. What I find absolutely evil is when sharks are caught, their fins are chopped off immediately and THE REST OF THEIR BODY IS DISCARDED, OFTEN WHILE STILL ALIVE. They are left to drown and bleed out to death. Clearly some humans are far more cruel and wasteful than these sensitive ocean dwellers.
It's wonderful news that toronto has banned the sale of shark fins. I don't really care about tradition as much as I care about the life of another breathing living being. I hope the rest of the country and every other country follows suit.
Cellular Respiration Activity
Under normal conditions muscles utilize oxygen (aerobic respiration) to make ATP
from glucose. When muscles undergo rigorous exercise they require more oxygen to make ATP than the blood can supply. At this point the muscle is forced to produce ATP without oxygen (anaerobic respiration). The product of this reaction is lactic acid.
low for muscles to produce their maximum force contraction. Under condition of
extreme fatigue, muscles become incapable of contracting or relaxing.
METABOLISM
1. ENERGY the ability to do work is needed for the survivial of living organisms.
Catabolic Reactions: reactions that result in the breakdown of complex substances.
Anabolic Reactions: cells build complex substances from simpler subunits (such as DNA from nucleotides.)
Metabolism: The sum of all anabolic and catabolic processes in a cell or organism.
2. LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS:
1. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but only converted forom one form into another. (The total amount of energy in the universe is constant.)
2. The entropy (measure of randomness or disorder in energy or in a collection of objects) of the universe increases with any change that occurs.
3. abosolute zero
3. All forms of energy can be classified as KINETIC ENERGY or POTENTIAL ENERGY
4. Potential energy diagram is a diagram showing the changes in potential energy that take placeduring a chemical reaction
5. Endothermic reaction: the reactants have more energy than the products
Exothermic reaction: the products have more energy than the reactants
12. REDOX REACTION: (oxidization-reduction) is a chemical reaction involving the transfer of one or more electrons from one atom to another. 
16. COMPETITIVE INHIBITORS: substances that compete with the subtrate for an enzymeès acitive site.
Top Ten Points for BIOTECHNOLOGY
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| Examples of blunt and sticky end enzymes |
2. BLUNT ENDS: fragment ends of DNA molecule that are fully based pairs.
3. Sticky ends are more useful. They can be easily joined to other sticky ends that have been cut by the same restriction enzyme.
4. RECOGNITION SITE: a specific sequence within double stranded DNA that restriction enzymes recognizes and cuts
5. GEL ELECTROPHORESIS: seperation of DNA fragments on the basis of sides by sorting through a gel meshwork.
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| The process of using plasmids during vector cloning |
6. PLASMIDS: small circular pieces of DNA that can exit and enter bacterial cells. They are uses as vectors because the plasmids lack a protein coat and are independant of the chromosome of the bacterial cell. Basically, it can be easily taken in and put back into a cell without messing up any of the cell's biological functions.
7. A use of VECTOR CLONING is that it can take a gene for something useful such as insulin, and isolate it into a vector and it can be expressed (cloned) by bacterial cells. In other words, this insulin gene is inserted into bacterial cells that express the gene and build the protein insulin.
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| A simplified process of PCR |
9. PCR can be seperated into three main parts ... 1. HEAT used to seperate DNA strands 2. COOL to attack primers 3. HEAT to extend primers using Taq polymerase
10. RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) can be used to find any difference in DNA sequence, non coding and coding that can be detected between individuals. This is useful in forensics to where a piece of DNA at the scene of the crime can be processed through the RFLP technique to see if it match's any suspets DNA.
PCR vs. DNA Sequencing
DNA sequencing, the Sanger dideoxy method, is a technique based on DNA replication that uses dideoxy nucleoside triphosphates. The ddNTPS are dNTP whose deoxyribose sugar is missing -OH group on its 3' carbon. They are the chain terminators.
SIMILARITIES:
- Use electrophoresis
- Both methods use DNA polymerase
DIFFERENCES:
- DNA sequencing uses radioactively labelled primers, DNA polymerase, dNTPs, single stranded DNA template and most importantly ddNTPs
- DNA sequencing uses a large sample of DNA sequence and replicates it
- PCR uses a small sample of DNA and amplifies it
- DNA sequencing maps specific nucleotides in a sequence wheras the main purpose of PCR is to produce large quantities of a specific DNA
PCR vs. Vector Cloning
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a process that amplifies a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.
Vector Cloning involves vectors (vehicles by which DNA may be introduced into host cells by) that are introduced into host cells. Fragments of the DNA introduced into the cell are identically cloned when the cell replicates and divides.
SIMILARITIES:
- Produce a sequence of DNA in large quantities
- DNA is produced at a fast rate
- Use electrophoresis
Top 10 Points for Molecular Genetics
1. Nucleoside have only a sugar and nitrogen base. (whereas nucleotides have sugar, nitrogen base, and phosphate group.)
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| There is a hydroxyl (-OH group) in the structure of RNA. |
2. RNA is more reactive than DNA because it is single stranded and it has one extra oxygen. This means that it cannot form a double helix strcuture because of the extra oxygen bond. The oxygen bond will react with something, such as the nearby phosphate group, and break the ladder structure if the RNA where to create a helix structure.
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| A portion of a DNA molecule with the helix unwound, showing the complementary base pairs. |
3. In base pairing, adenine and thymine always bind together (double hydrogen bonds) and guanine and cytosine bind together (triple hydrogen bonds).
4. There are three types of nucleotide bonds:
- Glycosyl - sugar + nitrogenous base (intramolecular)
- Phosphodiester - sugar + phosphate (intramolecular)
- Hydrogen - between nitrogenous bases (bonds connecting the nucleotides and nucleosides) (intermolecular)
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| Friffith's experiment proving that DNA is genetic material. |
Acts | Names | Characters | Roles |
| I | Initiation | -Helicase -SSBP -Gyrase -Primase | -Untwists DNA, provides the direction of replication -Stabilizes single stranded DNA -Release tension -Makes primers to initiate elongation |
| II | Elongation | -DNA Pol. III | -Elongates new DNA strands -Replication (5’-3’) |
| III | Termination | -DNA Pol. I -Ligase | -Proofreads the new strand (replace RNA with DNA) -Joins gaps between okazi fragments |
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| Exons are excised (cut out) before translation. |
8. RNA splicing removes introns (the noncoding segments) and joins exons to creat an mRNA molecule.
9. Three ways in which DNA can be replicated:
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| Possible ways DNA is replicated in. The two original strands of DNA are shown in yellow (light); newly synthesized DNA is blue (dark). |
Dispersive replication would produce two DNA molecules with sections of both old and new DNA interspersed along each strand.
Semiconservative replication would produce molecules with both old and new DNA, but each molecule would be composed of one old strand and one new one.
Deaf by Design
Getting our first real taste of genetics in the real world, we were introduced to an article called "Deaf by Design". The article tells the story of how a deaf couple want to concieve a deaf child, the world of deaf people, and the controversial side of having prenatal genetic testing to select a "desired" child.
Having never associated or known a deaf person, this article was an interesting and eye opening experience into the deaf community. I don't see deaf people any different than us, but I do feel concerned because they are usually isolated. They cannot hear or talk to people who do not know sign language and they can never hear music, the radio and television. The Deaf cannot hear their own children's laughter, cries, or anything that inspires all of the hearing people hearing from their children. It sound a little devasting but it seems as if the Dead don't see being deaf as a handicap. They've got their own tight knit community and their own culture, and they I'm sure they view their lifestyles as an alternative way of life, just as valuable as the life of hearing individuals.
As to them wanting a deaf child rather than a hearing one .... sure, why not. To each their own. If they think they can be better parents and it would lead to a stronger bond between the family, it seems as if it's the obvious answer to let them have what they want. As to aborting a fetus that can hear, it's not the most reassuring thing to hear and there definitely should be limitations and boundaries to this sticky topic.
While watching the documentary involving decision to getting a cochlear implant for a child, there was really one thing running through my mind. And that is how cool sign language is. Really, it's fascinating how sign language can be such a powerful way communicating from just using hand shapes to convey meaning.
As to getting a cochlear implant .... I'm not against anything that will improve life. The technology can help a Deaf person go so far beyond in the future, because after all, most people on this planet don't use sign language to communicate. It all comes down to whether the parents make the right decision. No one can interject and argue with the family on whats the best decision for the child. Outsiders never know the whole story.