Chapter 17 Free Response Questions

1. Beadle and Tatum did one of the most important experiments in biology in the first 50 years of the 20th century. Using common bread mold, Neurospora crassa, they were able to prove that one gene leads to one polypeptide. This is remarkable, especially considering they didn’t even know that a gene was made of DNA!!! Please outline the steps of their experiment that lead them to this remarkable conclusion. Your answer must show the logical steps they took to make this deduction so be thorough in your answer.
Hint: To help answer the question go first to the DNA Learning Center and do the animation on Lesson 16: One gene makes one protein. http://www.dnaftb.org/dnaftb/16/concept/index.html
This is like getting a lecture on the experiment. To get the essence of the experiment read your book pages 294-296.

2. In order for protein to be made from the DNA it needs to first be transcribed (copied) into messenger RNA and then this messenger RNA needs to be modified. Illustrate and describe this process to the same level of detail that is found on the CD ROM Activity 17.2 and 17.3. The book figures 17. 6, 17.8, 17.9, & 17.10 will be helpful too.


3. Describe the steps of translation (protein synthesis), beginning with the attachments of a messenger RNA molecule to the small subunit of a ribosome (Initiation) and ending with the release of the polypeptide from the ribosome (Termination). Include in your answer a discussion of how the different types of RNA function in this process. Illustrate and describe this process to the same level of detail as is found in CD ROM Activity 17.4.