mRNA is different from DNA because DNA is a double-stranded which takes the form of a double helix while mRNA is single-stranded. DNA is a nucleic acid while mRNA is a ribonucleic acid. DNA is the basic genetic material and is made up of three things: a phosphate, a sugar, and a nitrogenous base. mRNA is one type of RNA. It is made up of ribonucleotides and occurs in the nucleus by transcription using DNA. DNA and mRNA contain three of the same bases but have one different from each other, DNA contains thymine and mRNA contains uracil.
Transcription is done by an enzyme called polymerase. Transcription is the process of the information on 1 DNA gene is copied onto a strand of mRNA. Transcription happens in three phases. The first is unwinding the second is complementary base pairing then the third is separation from DNA.
Today’s activity was helpful because it showed each step that DNA transcription had to do and how it had to do it. It was also helpful because it showed us how RNA and DNA had their own special base and how their structures were different. The model was inaccurate in the way that it didn’t show how transcription was just fragments of DNA. The activity made it seem as if it was the entire double helix. It was also inaccurate in the way that RNA is smaller than DNA but, in the activity, they were shown as the same size.
Initiation is when RNA polymerase binds to a fragment of DNA near the beginning of a gene. When it is bound together, PNA polymerase separates the DNA strands which provides the structure of a single stand that is needed for transcription. Elongation is when the DNA is read base by base. It is when polymerase builds a molecule of RNA out of nucleotides that are complementary to each other. The strand that has been transcripted carries the same information as the original DNA strand but uses uracil instead of thymine. Termination is a sequence that signals that the RNA transcript has been completed. It causes the transcripted DNA to be released from the polymerase enzyme.
Today’s activity did a good job of modelling the translation process because it helped us understand translation more clearly by having us do it ourselves. It also helped to show us the way that each separate step worked. It was a bit confusing with the instructions at some parts because we couldn’t tell what each separate piece of paper was supposed to be for.