Lab 3 - Protein Synthesis

Rules:
  1. Search for and then submit in the comment box below an article which relates to this lab's topic that has both an interesting and exciting story.
  2. Include with your submission:  your name, your section, the title of the article and the URL link to it's source.  Additionally, upon submitting the above, I ask that you also include a very brief description.  Hint:  make your article stand out, in other words, make me want to read what you've found.
  3. Should you be selected as one of the lucky three, you will be required to write a 200 to 500 word blog post that describes the article you found.  The post you write up will be featured on this blog. Your post must include citations and references giving credit to the original source.  As an example, see the first post on this blog:  HERE, note that the description is 291 words in length.
  4. Should two students find and post the same article/story, regardless of source, the first student who posted the article/story in the comments will be considered.
  5. Lastly, this extra credit can only be received once by an individual student.
Comment posting will end at noon on Saturday, February 16, 2013.

 Lab 3 - Protein Synthesis (i.e. transcription, translation, mRNA, etc.):


7 comments:

Jessica Hanson
Bio Lab 124 - 26

Study Supports Flawed Protein Synthesis Theory of Autism
By: Emily Singer

This article discusses how autism in some cases is due to overactive protein synthesis. It explores how by reducing this it can in turn potentially reverse this disability.

http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2012/study-supports-flawed-protein-synthesis-theory-of-autism

Jonathan Zirna
Bio Lab 124:26
Non-coding RNA is essential for normal embryonic cardiogenesis

This article shows great findings about RNA and how stem cells absolutely need RNA for embryonic development. RNA controls transcription factors which regulate tissue and organogenesis, the development of organs. IncRNA regulates cardiogenesis, which is able to show dis-formation in hearts.
http://www.bionity.com/en/news/141435/epigenetic-control-of-cardiogenesis.html

Paige Brandsdorfer
Bio Lab 124-26
Fragile X and Down syndromes share signalling pathway for intellectual disability

This article talks about a professor at Indiana University that is doing research about how some of the proteins are altered to cause Fragile X and Down Syndrome. There are common molecular triggers of the two diseases. The research is using mice to show their is a shared molecular pathway and that they can use common therapeutic approaches.

http://www.bionity.com/en/news/139111/fragile-x-and-down-syndromes-share-signalling-pathway-for-intellectual-disability.html

Study Finds How Stressed-Out Cells Halt Protein Synthesis

Nicole Boisvert
Section 124-26
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-stressed-out-cells-halt-protein-synthesis.html

A recent study done at Cornell University found that stressed cells stop protein synthesis. Stress can affect cells by temperature change, oxidative damage, and mis-folded proteins. Researchers at one time thought stress was regulated at the very beginning of translation, where mRNA is first “translated” or read. However; it was observed that proteins delay protein synthesis halfway, during elongation, and then continue once the cell is stress free. It is important to note cells that synthesize with stress can cause denatured protein that leads to harmful toxicity levels and disease. It is simply amazing how proteins detect environmental changes and react! Read more to discover exactly how Cornell researchers came about this observation.

New Insights Into Protein Synthesis and Hepatitis C Infections

Jenn Gregorio
Section 124-26
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/LSD-protein-synthesis.html


This article tells about scientists that have uncovered key new information towards understanding the crucial first step in protein synthesis when the genetic code is translated into the production of proteins. This new information also helps to explain how viruses, such as Hepatitis C, are able to highjack protein synthesis machinery in humans for their own purposes.

DNA Sequence May Be Lost in Translation

Brooke Vasilescu
Section 124-26
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101105/full/news.2010.586.html

Research was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Washington DC about a mysterious, unexpecting phenomenon “RNA editing” that could have very serious effects in humans. Mingyao Li from University of Pennsylvania told the conference about her different findings and how she compared DNA and RNA sequences of 27 people (which soon will be 1000). Results suggest that this can have something to do with the editing of the genome, which has more than 102,000 potential editing events. They also estimated a surprisingly high 97% rate of transcripts produced from any gene. I found this all VERY interesting because some researches say it is linked to different cell metabolisms, brain functions in mice, and also misregulation of RNA editing in diseases, such as ALS and epilepsy. On the other hand, other researchers say it may only be a result of sequencing errors.

Vicky Cooley
Bioscience 124-26
'Rhythm' of protein folding encoded in RNA, Stanford biologists find
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/protein-folding-rhythm-012913.html

Biologists of Stanford University have recently discovered how the “rhythm” of protein synthesis is directly related to the folding of a new protein that is synthesized in the ribosome. Although many RNA sequences can code for the same amino acid, some codons are more optimal than others, and either speed up or slow down translation. This “optimality,” which is linked to the availability and speed of tRNA molecules, ultimately effects protein folding. The biologists found that the optimal codons actually translated more precisely, thus reducing the risk of protein misfolding. These codons also specified for crucial protein regions that could not afford any translational error.

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