Plasmids

It is not a gene, it is a catalytic enzyme for breaking down sugar polymers (via hydrolysis) that are often found in sphingolipids, which are a special type of lipid that make up cell membranes. Spingolipids contain polysaccarides (several mono-sugar units linked together) chains at the end of it to aid in signaling between neighboring cells. The purpose of this enzyme is to break off individual sugar units off this larger sphingolipid molecule, thus changing the properties and function of the cell it is bound to.

Why do you want to know about this, just out of curiosity? (I'm a chemistry major, so I love this kind of stuff!)
 
IndigoSensor said:
It is not a gene, it is a catalytic enzyme for breaking down sugar polymers (via hydrolysis) that are often found in sphingolipids, which are a special type of lipid that make up cell membranes. Spingolipids contain polysaccarides (several mono-sugar units linked together) chains at the end of it to aid in signaling between neighboring cells. The purpose of this enzyme is to break off individual sugar units off this larger sphingolipid molecule, thus changing the properties and function of the cell it is bound to.

Why do you want to know about this, just out of curiosity? (I'm a chemistry major, so I love this kind of stuff!)
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Im trying to understand this godforsaken plasmid map that was thrust on me (im a freshman in a beginners biology class) so im basically looking at heiroglyphics over here...its puc19, btw
 
Plasmid map? You mean a genomic sequence (it would look something like: ATCCAGCTAGGTACCC), that is in the shape of a ring?

I am assuming what you are working on is dealing with restriction enzymes, and gel electrophoresis, am I right?
 
all enzymes are genes offcourse. A gene in the human genome can be transcriped into messenger RNA and than translated into a proteine

The enzyme is often used in molecular biological cloning work as a biomarker.

It is like this (I hope I have it right). You take a plasmid backbone (like pUC19), you bring in the sequence for Lac-A-alpha and insight that sequence you bring the DNA-sequence that you are interested in. Than you bring the whole plasmid into a bacteria in the presence of X-gal (a a galactose sugar that is metabolized by Beta-galactosidase). When your insert (DNA of interest) is inserted into the plasmid and thus disables the working of Lac-A-alpha your bacteria colonies will apear white on your agar gel because they couldn't metabolise X-gal. If not, the Lac-A-alpha can metabolise X-gal into an other chemical product that colors blue. So for your further work you can choose a bacteria colony that colors white because that one will have the insert you wanted

what doe you need to know about the plasmid map? Plasmids are my job actually :becky:
 
Morgan said:
all enzymes are genes offcourse.
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What you really mean is that all polypeptide enzymes have related genes. In this case it is the protein that has enzymatic activity.

You can actually create enzymes from oligonucleotides as well (including the use of nucleic acid bases which aren't natural). Examples include aptamers etc.
 
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Architectonic said:
What you really mean is that all enzymes have related genes. In this case it is the protein that has enzymatic activity.

You can actually create enzymes from oligonucleotides as well (including the use of nucleic acid bases which aren't natural). Examples include aptamers etc.
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Hey guys lets not try to shred my brain...
 
But surely you would/will have covered the basics of cellular and molecular biochemistry?

Wikipedia splits it up into Genetics, Molecular biology and biochemistry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_biology

This is the 'non-technical' explanation on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_genetics#Genes_make_proteins

I've only done one semester of biology at Uni too, by the way. I find the theory interesting, but I'm not a fan of how the lab work is done. Biologists still need better tools in my opinion.....
 
Architectonic said:
but I'm not a fan of how the lab work is done. Biologists still need better tools in my opinion.....
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They sure have better tools somewhere outside of universities. Even MIT doesn't probably have the top tech labs that exist.


Oh, just writing here to say that I like the thread. (: How much of these experiments would be possible to "bring home"? Is the basic equipment/supply very expensive?
:m148:
 
Architectonic said:
I've only done one semester of biology at Uni too, by the way. I find the theory interesting, but I'm not a fan of how the lab work is done. Biologists still need better tools in my opinion.....
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and what better tools whould you sugest? I think my company has one hell of a state of the art laboratory. With all the wissles and bells I could dream of, much better than college. For instance, in college we had to pipet using our mouth while at my company we have an automatically pipetor :m200:
enfp can be shy said:
Oh, just writing here to say that I like the thread. (: How much of these experiments would be possible to "bring home"? Is the basic equipment/supply very expensive?
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I wouldn't bring any molecular or cellular biology at home, with all those genetic manipulated microorganisms crawling over your sofa, and where will you put that laminar flow cabinet that is as big as your table? And then we are not speaking of all the biological waste. I wonder, would that be considered green waste? :becky:
 
Morgan said:
I wonder, would that be considered green waste? :becky:
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I would think most of it would be green waste, at least it would seem that way to me. I work in an organic synthesis lab, NOTHING we use is green waste, ha!
 
IndigoSensor said:
I would think most of it would be green waste, at least it would seem that way to me. I work in an organic synthesis lab, NOTHING we use is green waste, ha!
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ha, nothing we use is green waste either. Everything goes in a special yellow bin for biological waste and than strate to the incinerator (is that word correct?) or we decontaminate it with Vircon (that kills really everything) before we trash it. It makes me sick to see how much waste we produce every day :D
 
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