uenes anu the Buman Conuition Session 2 NovembeiBecembei 2u1S

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Bello, anu welcome to uenes anu the Buman Conuition, fiom Behavioi to
Biotechnology. Ny colleague Bi. St Legei anu I aie exciteu to take you on this
auventuie examining the balance of gene expiession anu the impact of enviionment,
anu how the two woik togethei to make you uniquely you. You uon't neeu a stiong
backgiounu in biology oi genetics to uo well in this class. You just neeu to be
inteiesteu in the mateiial anu have a passion foi leaining. Biu you iealize that you
might have the genes to giow tall oi have an incieuibly high IQ. But if you weie
staiveu of nutiients while you weie ueveloping in youi mothei's womb oi uuiing
the foimative chiluhoou yeais, the expiession of those genes coulu be alteieu. We'll
also uiscuss how humans have anu continue to use what we know about genetics
anu biology to manipulate the woilu aiounu us. This fielu of genetics is calleu
biotechnology.
uenetics is the stuuy of heieuity oi how tiaits aie passeu on fiom one
geneiation to the next. We'ie going to talk a lot about veitical gene tiansfei thiough
sexual iepiouuction. This occuiieu when you inheiiteu youi genes fiom youi
paients anu will occui when you pass genes uown in a veitical fashion to the next
geneiation.
The molecule all living oiganisms, incluuing us, use to pass on theii genetic
infoimation is BNA, ueoxyiibonucleic aciu. BNA is the univeisal language of genetics
anu we have a lot of it: almost eveiy cell in youi bouy has ovei two meteis oi six feet
of BNA. BNA is veiy thin, thieaulike anu uouble stianueu, anu, just like thieau, it is
oiganizeu by wiapping aiounu a spool. Youi BNA is oiganizeu by wiapping it
aiounu veiy special pioteins calleu histones.
So, how uoes a molecule pass on genes. You coulu think about BNA like a
cookbook, it has eveiy iecipe you neeu to make you. Now that's one impoitant
cookbook! Anu as with anything that impoitant, you'ie going to want to piotect it to
keep those iecipes safe. 0ui BNA is houseu anu piotecteu in the nucleus of oui cells.
In fact, the BNA is so impoitant, we uon't use its infoimation uiiectly. 0nly the
specific iegions of the BNA aie tiansciibeu into RNA, iibonucleic aciu. RNA is a
cheap single stianueu molecule that can leave the nucleus. We use the RNA to
expiess oui genetic coue insteau of using oui BNA.
So, woulu you biing out youi family's cookbook anu iisk the chance of it
getting iuineu eveiy time you cookeu a meal. Piobably not. It makes much moie
sense to copy each iecipe uown onto a piece of papei that you uon't minu spilling
foou on. Tiansciibeu RNA is oui "genetic piece of papei," to ensuie that youi
family's genetic iecipes stay piotecteu.
This BNA cookbook has about 22,Suu genes, oi iecipes, anu we can make at
least 1u times moie types of piotein than that numbei of genes. So what uoes that
mean with the cookbook analogy. Well, that means that you have 22,Suu uiffeient
iecipes, but you uon't only use them to make 22,Suu uiffeient meals. Latei on we'll
talk about how these iecipes can be mouifieu to make even moie than 22,Suu meals.
We also have two sets of chiomosomes, one fiom youi mothei anu the othei
set fiom youi fathei. Because of this, we'ie calleu uiploiu anu these chiomosomes
aie piesent in homologous paiis. We have 2S paiis of chiomosomes. Each paii is
uenes anu the Buman Conuition Session 2 NovembeiBecembei 2u1S
going to be alike in size, stiuctuie, anu caiiy similai infoimation foi the same kinu
of tiaits- so we call these chiomosomes homologous.
What that means, when we look at the cookbook analogy, is that you
have two heiiloom cookbooks. 0ne that you inheiiteu fiom youi mothei's
siue of the family, anu one that you inheiiteu fiom youi fathei's siue of the family.
In eveiy genetics class we have to uiscuss the one anu only cential uogma
biology. This uogma states that BNA is useu as a template to geneiate RNA, this
piocess is calleu tiansciiption. That RNA coues a specific sequence of
amino acius that aie going to be linkeu togethei to foim of a piotein. This piocess is
calleu tianslation. Anu what we see is that uiffeient cell types in youi bouy all have
uiffeient RNAs tiansciibeu anu, in tuin, uiffeient pioteins tianslateu.
But how is this possible if most eveiy cell of youi bouy has the exact same
BNA. Well, in uiffeient cell types we have uiffeient BNA sequences tuineu on anu
off as pait of a piocess calleu uiffeientiation. 0ui bouy can contiol what genes aie
tuineu on anu how much RNA you tiansciibe as pait of gene expiession.
So how uoes youi bouy know which amino acius to use anu the iight oiuei to
put them togethei in. Well, youi BNA ueteimines all of that. The stiing of amino
acius is calleu youi piimaiy stiuctuie of a piotein. The seconuaiy stiuctuie is how
the uiffeient amino acius inteiact with each othei. Anu the teitiaiy stiuctuie is the
SB shape of a piotein. What we aie going to see is that the shape oi foim of a
piotein ielates to its function. But we also have some pioteins that aie ieally
complicateu anu aie composeu of multiple pioteins that come togethei as subunits.
Anu those pioteins aie saiu to have a quateinaiy stiuctuie.
So BNA mutations can leau to iiiegulaily shapeu pioteins because of the
ielationship I just talkeu about. BNA coues foi the lineai sequence of amino acius, so
if theie is a mutation of the BNA, that can to leau to an impiopei amino aciu
sequence in the piotein that can ultimately affect the foluing of the piotein.
Changing the shape of a piotein can in tuin change the function of the piotein. A
gieat example of this is the sickle cell tiait, which is uue to a substitution mutation
in the hemoglobin gene, which causes one amino aciu to be substituteu foi anothei
amino aciu. This changes the shape of the hemoglobin piotein founu in ieu bloou
cells, which then changes the shape of ieu bloou cells, anu, in tuin, alteis the
function of those cells. A ieu bloou cell with an alteieu shape has an alteieu
phenotype.
Youi phenotype is youi specific set of physical oi obseivable chaiacteiistics.
Youi phenotype is ueteimineu by the unique inteiactions of youi genes anu
enviionment. Bow the two inteiact: youi genes anu the enviionment is what makes
you, you. Anu that's one of the many inteiesting things we aie going to be uiscussing
thioughout the semestei.