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Hello, and welcome to Genes and the Human

Condition From Behavior to Biotechnology.
My colleague, Dr. St. Leger and I are
excited to take you on
this adventure, examining the balance of
genes,
expression and the impact of the
environment.
And how they work together to make you
uniquely you.
You don't need a strong background in
biology or genetics to do well in this
class, you just need to be interested in
the material and have a passion for
learning.
Did you realize that you might have the
genes to grow
really tall or have an incredibly high
I.Q.?
But if you were starved of nutrients while
you're developing in your mother's womb,
or during your formative childhood years,
the
expression of those genes could be
altered.
We'll discuss how humans have, and
continue to use, what we
know about genetics, and biology to
manipulate the world around us.
This field of genetics is called
biotechnology.
Genetics is the study of heredity, or how
traits
are passed on from one generation to the
next.
We're going to talk a lot about
vertical gene transfer throughout the
semester,
and through the process of sexual
reproduction.
This occurred when you inherited your
genes from your parents, and will occur
when you pass your genes down in a
vertical fashion to the next generation.
The molecule of all living organisms,
including us, that we use
to pass on our genetic information is
called DNA, Deoxyribonucleic acid.
DNA is the universal language of genetics
and we have lot of it.
Almost every cell in our body has over two
meters or six feet worth of DNA.
DNA's very thin, thread-like and double
stranded.
And just like a thread, it's organized by
wrapping it around a spool.
Your DNA is organized by wrapping it
around a very special protein called

histone.
So how does a molecule pass on genes?
You could think about DNA like a cookbook,
it has
a recipe, and every recipe you need to
make you you.
Now that's one pretty important cookbook.
And with anything that's important, you're
going to
want to protect it and keep those recipes
safe.
Our DNA is housed and protected in the
nucleus of our cells.
In fact, that DNA is so important, we
don't
use it directly and we never allow it to
leave
the nucleus.
Only specific regions of the DNA are
transcribed into RNA, ribonucleic acid.
RNA is a cheap, single-strand molecule
that can leave the nucleus.
We use the RNA to express our genetic code
instead of using our DNA directly.
So, would you be willing to take out your
family's heirloom cookbook, and
risk the chance of it getting ruined every
time you cooked a meal?
Probably not.
It makes much more sense
to copy each recipe down on a separate
piece
of paper that you don't mind spilling food
on.
Transcribed RNA is our genetic piece of
paper
to ensure that our family's genetic
recipes stay protected.
That DNA cookbook has about 22,500 recipes
or genes, and we can
make at least ten times more proteins than
the number of genes.
So what does that mean with the cookbook
analogy?
Well that means you have about 22,500
different recipes,
but you don't only use them to make
22,500 different meals, you'd make ten
times more meals.
Later on we'll talk about how these
recipes can
be modified to make even more than those
22,500 meals.
We also have two sets of chromosomes, one
from your mother,
and one from your father, because of this,
we're called diploid.
And these chromosomes are present in
homologous pairs.
We have 23 pairs of chromosomes, each pair

is going to be alike in size, structure,

and carry similar information from the,
for the
same kind of traits, we call those
chromosomes homologous.
What that means is when we look at
the cookbook analogy, that you actually
have two heirloom
cookbooks, one from your mother's side and
one from your father's side.
In every genetic's class, we have to talk
about something called the central dogma
of biology.
The dogma states that DNA is used as a
template to generate
RNA, just like we talked about with that
analogy of the cookbook.
That process is called transcription.
The RNA codes a specific sequence of amino
acids
that are going to be linked together to
form a protein.
That process is called translation.
And what we see is that different cell
types in your
body all have different RNAs transcribed
and in turn, different proteins
translated.
But how is that possible if almost every
cell in your body has the exact same DNA?
Well, in different cell types, different
DNA sequences can be
turned on and off as part of a process
called differentiation.
Our bodies can control what genes are
turned on, and how
much RNA you transcribe as part of a
process called gene expression.
So how does your body know which amino
acids
to use, and the right order to put them
in?
Well, the DNA determines all of that.
The string of amino acids is called your
primary structure
of a protein, that, again, is determined
by your DNA.
The secondary structure is how the
different amino acids interact with each
other.
And the tertiary structure's the 3D shape
of a protein.
And what we're going to see is that that
shape or form of a protein directly
relates to
its function.
And also, we have proteins that have a
really complicated structure that are
composed of multiple
sub-units that come together, and those

proteins are
said to have a quaternary, or four
dimensional structure.
So, DNA mutations can lead to irregularly
shaped
proteins, because of the relationship I
just talked about.
DNA codes for the linear sequence of amino
acids, so if there's
a mutation in the DNA, that can lead to an
improper amino acid
sequence in the protein, that can
ultimately affect the folding of the
protein.
And remember, changing the shape of a
protein
can in turn change the function of the
protein.
A great example of this is the sickle cell
trait.
It's due to a substitution mutation in the
hemoglobin gene, which
causes one amino acid to be substituted
for another amino acid.
And this changes the shape of hemoglobin
found in red blood cells,
that, in turn, changes the shape of the
red blood
cells, and that ultimately alters the
function of those cells.
A red blood cell with an altered shape has
an altered phenotype.
Your phenotype are your specific physical
or observable traits.
Your phenotype is determined by your
unique
interactions of your genes, and that
collection
of your genes is called your genotype,
and how your genes interact with the
environment.
So that interplay,
your genes and the environment, is what
makes you, you.
And that's one of the many interesting
things we're going to be discussing
throughout the semester.
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