Reference no: EM133620021 , Length: Words Count:500

Assignment:

Write a response to the following discussion questions. When writing your response you should write complete sentences and use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. To fully develop your response, a response of a minimum of 250 words is recommended for each of the questions.

1. Knowing that the genetic code is nearly universal, a scientist uses molecular biological methods to insert the human α-globin gene into bacterial cells, hoping that the cells will express it and synthesize functional α-globin protein. Instead, the protein produced is non-functional and is found to contain many fewer amino acids than the α-globin produced by a eukaryotic cell. Explain why.

2. Prostate cells generally require testosterone and other androgens to survive. But some prostate cancer cells thrive despite treatments that deplete androgens. One hypothesis is that estrogen, often considered a female hormone, may be activating genes normally controlled by an androgen in these cancer cells. Describe one or more experiments to test this hypothesis.

Trace amounts of dioxin were found in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed on vegetation during the Vietnam War. Tests on animals suggested that dioxin can cause birth defects, liver cancer and damage to the thymus and suppression of the immune system, sometimes leading to death. But animal testing is equivocal; a hamster is not affected by a dose that would kill a piglet. Dioxin acts like a steroid hormone, entering a cell and binding to a receptor protein which then attaches to the cell's DNA. How might this mechanism help explain the variety of effects of dioxins on different body systems and indifferent animals? How could you determine if a type of illness is related to dioxin exposure? How could you determine if a particular person became ill as a result of exposure to dioxins? Which would be more difficult to prove? Why?