Assignment

Biotechnology is the use of microbes to make practical products. The top three justifications for manipulating the genomes of cells are:

1. to eliminate undesirable phenotypic traits in humans, animals, plants and microbes.

2. to combine the beneficial traits of two or more organisms to create a new more valuable organism.

3. to create cells that synthesize products humans need.

1. Explain and describe one physical and one chemical mutagen and its application.

2. Explain how reverse transcriptase differs from RNA polymerase. Give one example of an application of reverse transcriptase in recombinant DNA technology.

3. If each letter of the keyboard represents a base in DNA, how many keys does the keyboard require? How does this means of DNA synthesis differ from DNA replication in the cell?

4. What is the genetic code, how might a synthetic nucleotide be used to determine which amino acid corrresponds to which codon?

5. Give an example of a probe with a flourescent tag that will be used to locate a gene associated with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

6. Compare and contrast blunt and sticky ends, and give one example of each type of restriction enzyme.

7. Explain one risk of a viral vector that inserts itself into a necessary gene and causes a mutation.

8. Explain how a subunit vaccine is designed using genes from a pathogen and a viral vector? p502-504.

9. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of the TBV approach for controlling the spread of arboviruses.

10. Does the public have any control over the use of gene drives to alter species in the ecosystem for public health concerns?