This activity demonstrates how DNA sequences can be mapped and characterized, such as in the Human Genome Project and how DNA is cut and arranged during genetic engineering. A cell must decide which DNA to use to make the proteins it needs to be that cell. Since smooth muscle doesn't need tropomyosin to be able to contract, it doesn't make the tropomyosin protein. During this experiment, students will separate out the muscle proteins from cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle using protein gel electrophoresis. Students will compare the muscle proteins to actin, myosin, and tropomyosin protein controls and determine which proteins each muscle type makes.
Many experiments examine DNA at the molecular level.
Students make observations about the eye colors of different fruit fly mutants and then more closely examine the mutants' eye pigments by separating them using paper chromatography. The assay detects which individuals are infected, and students apply their knowledge of immunology to understand how the assay works at the molecular level. By analyzing the classroom data, students determine the original carriers of the virus and examine how transmitted diseases spread in a population.