genetic material

So I find it very interesting when the beginning of chapter twelve started out with the history of when things like the gene was discovered. I was born in 1991 and thye had discovered genes way before I was alive. I think that is awesome because it shows ow intelligent God made us. It really shows what we are capable of. We now have the 3 things that were known about genes when they were first discovered plus the entire chapter but that is way to much to blog about. The first thing that is known about genes is that it is able to store information that pertains to the development, shape, and metabolic activities of the cell or organism. Second, the stable so that it can be replicated with high fidelity during cell division and be transmitted from generation to generation. Lastly, it is able to undergo rare changes called mutation that provide the gentic variability required for evolution to occur. These things about the gene make life so much better!

genotype

Why would genotype TT be larger thant Tt or tt? This was very hard for me to figure out when reading but after stairing at the picture for a little while longer I think I may have discovered why. A capitol T satand for the dominant and of course the lower case is the recessive. So when a plant is growing larger than the the rest of the plants in the area and of the same type that just mean that it received more dominant alleles during fertilization than the rest. The interesting part is when they are mixed. I can just think about how big the plants could be if they were able to get more dominant alleles more often instead of being mixed.The reason they do not is because it all depends on the ground a plant is planted in. I i take beans and plant them in Georgia red clay then the obvious result would be if they grew then they would be very weak and small plants. That results means that all the beans received from this soil was mostly just recessive alleles. Now we can plant them somewhere else, say an old corn field, all the corn died off about a year ago and it has been plowed. This is the place to go to plant these beans. Now on the outer edge may be the area where they will be mixed like Tt but as you move toward the heart of the field then there will be more nutrients there for genotype TT.

genotype and phenotype

These are basically described as two different types of plants. The first one is genotype and that refers to the amount alleles an individual receives at fertilization. Lets break down the word, it consist of birth, shape, what type it is or even race. This mean that genotype can be explained be cause itself explains what types of plants are which by the information that it gives off just by the way  it looks, it grows, smells, or if it is short or tall. Phenotype does not do the same funciton as that of genotype. Phenotype refers to just the appearance and the appearcan alone. Lets list some examples. The genotype is homozygous dominant which means that it will most likely be a tall plant. Then it can also be homozygous recessive whic hresult in a short plant. Again it depends on the amount of alleles that are given to the plant during fertiliation on how tall the plant will grow. How theses two are alike are the fact that they both can be homozygous, or homozygous dominant and recessive resulting in two tall plants and one short plant. One shows that type throuh size, shape, the way it grows and more whiule the other just ables it to be identified by its shape.

The Citric Acid Cycle

This process is a long drawn out process so bare with it for a little bit. We will first start where an acetyl groups are combined to a C4 molecule to form citrate. That was the first process and then now two times the substrates are oxidized into NAD+ reduced to NADH  and is now released as CO2. So now that CO2 is realeased into the air we can now move down to the 3rd process where ATP is produced  as energy and is transferred from a substrate to ADP. This will release FADH2 after CO2. This is of course after another substrate is oxidized again but this time from FAD to FADH2. Then the process continues to another substrate being oxidized and this time NAD+ is reduced to NADH. That was the last cycle and that is how citric acid is fromed I beleive. I think that the book is talking about the same citric acid that is put in to sodas and other types of drinks. If I am correct that means that this is why citric acid forms in juices that come out of fruits such as oranges and lemons. Citric acid in my own opinion is a terrible thing to put in your mouth. If your not eating a type of fruit with it naturally in their then you should stay away from it. Of course you can stil eat a certain fruit to much to the point of it hurting you also, so just because it is a fruit does not mean that it will do nothing but good for your body. It can eat away at your anamal that is on your teeth.

The Cell Cycle and Cancer

In the book one of the topics that was in bold print was the process of cancer. I have always known what cancer was but have never researched to the point of being educated in the topic. I have been looking over the figure on page 161 that demonstrates the process of how cancer can spread throughout the body. First it can start with a primary tumor or mutation to the skin for example and in this tumor their can be one cell that continues while the others do not. The mutation of that one cell now causes the rest of them to mutate in the same way and takes over. Now this one cell going wrong can cause this tumor to now be cancerous. Now the bad part comes and gets worse when a blood vessel is over taken by these mutated cell and the a lymphathetic vessel also. This allows the mutated cells to spread through the blood stream and spreading cancer at the same time. I do not know how much you read this Dr. Platt but I have a question. In class you said that even one cigarrette can cause a person to get cancer. So what happens when people dip? How does that process happen. How is it different than a smoker and a dipper? I understand that smoke has more harmful effects since you are filling your lungs with smoke but what does dip do?

Interphase

Today in class we went over something that occurs in the cell cycle called interphase. From what it looks like , there are many steps in interphase that will take place in the cell cycle. First of all most of the cell cycle is spent in interphase. This is where the cell will perform its usual functions depending on its location in the body. Interphase will start off at the G1 checkpoint or the first growth. This stage is where the cell is committed to split when growth signals are present and all of the nutrients are available and ready to go. Now it moves to the S stage where the DNA synthesis also know as replication of itself. So DNA replication has resulted in in two chromosomes and two chromatids will stay attached until they are split in mitosis. Now we move to the G2 stage or the second growth. In this stage the process is very simple, this stage is basically the mitosis checkpoint , after the DNA is replicated this stage will make sure that the DNA is prepared for mitosis. If the DNA is damaged Apoptosis will occur because the DNA can not be repaired. The Miotic Stage is the final stage of interphase. In this stage is known as the spindle assembly checkpoint. Here mitosis will occur and that is where cells are divided. There is also cytokinesis will also happen and that is the splitting of the cytoplasm. During these phases daughter chromosomes will go to the two daughter nuclei by the mitotic spindle. When the dividing of the cytoplasm is done there are then two daughter cells present.

C4 Photosynthesis

In Chapter 7 one of the most important things that was stressed on in class was the light reaction and the Calvin cycle reaction in the process of photosynthesis. Moving on in the chapter I discovered that there were even more types of photosynthesis. In a C4 leaf the bundle sheath cells as well as the mesophyll cells contain chloroplasts. Unlike the C3, the mesophyll cells ore arranged concentrically around the bundle sheath cells. When I look at the picture of the C4 plant it is pretty interesting in the way that it is shaped like , which is a like a flower. From the picture that is shown it looks like the xylem and the phloem are sitting in the middle of it is surrounded by the vein then the bundle sheath cell. Now what it is does is use the enzyme PEP carbxylase to fix CO2 to PEP and the result is a C4 molecule called oxaloacetate. Now to put this more clearly, the C4 plants will form a C4 molecule in mesophyll cells right before releasing CO2 to the Calvin Cycle. This means that all of this must enter in the light reaction before reaching the Calvin Cycle . It is funny how this one thing, called cholorplast, does so much within its tiny parts that can not even be seen unless I see a picture or through a microscope. This factory, as I compare them to is so unique in itself that I can never wrap my mind around it . I actually desire to learn more about it in itself but I do know that I will never understand the full length of Gods creation.