Protein Synthesis & Homeostasis Investigation
Our Protein: Insulin
Insulin is a protein that all bodies need to function. It regulates the absorption of glucose and is produced by the pancreas. The lack of insulin results in dibetes, a treatable but serious condition. A person with type 1 diabetes can't produce insulin and their beta cells have been destroyed. They need insulin shots to absorb their glucose for any meal. In type 2 diabetes, their pancreas can still produce insulin, but their bodies don't react to it so well so they may need insulin shots as well. There are various types of insulin, and almost all of them are made in a lab and are used in circulation in pretty much every pharmacy and/or medical center.
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Preproinsulin: main translation product of insulin. It is a peptide that consists of 110 amino acids.
Nucleus: core of cells surrounded by a cell membrane and store all of the genetic materal in a cell Nucleotides: the building blocks of DNA and RNA DNA: a molecule that carries the genetic info used for cellular function (insulin has its own dna that is involved in its process to become a sythesized protein) RNA: a nucleic acid that is in all living cells. Its main role is to act as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA for controlling the synthesis of proteins (this is another part of insulin becoming a protein and rna is in the translation step) mRNA: messenger RNA (mRNA) is part of a large family of RNA molecules that relay info from the DNA to the ribosomes Ribosome: a teeny particle in the cell made of RNA and other similar proteins, found in large numbers in the cytoplasm of living cells Central Dogma: DNA encodes RNA, RNA encodes Protein |
Insulin: a hormone that controls the level of glucose intake
Beta Cells: make insulin RNA Polymerse: enzyme that produces primary transcript RNA. DNA Strand: a molecule that carries the genetic info used in the growth of cells tRna: transferers of ribonucleic acid (tRNA) and is a type of RNA molecule that helps decode a messenger ( RNA (mRNA) sequence into a protein. Amino Chain: Protein molecules are long chains of amino acids that are folded into a three-dimensional shape (protein folding which also occurs in the synthesizing of insulin) Amino Acid: the essential building block of biological proteins Peptide Bonds: a chemical bond that is formed when two carboxyl group molecules reacts with the amino acids, releasing a molecule of water |
Macromolecule: a large complex molecule, such as nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, and has a relatively large molecular weight (insulin is a protein, and we used the synthesis of macromolecules in order to explain insulin's synthesis)
Rough ER: network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
Endoplasmic Reticulum:a network of membranous tubules within the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell, continuous with the nuclear membrane
Glogi Apparatis: gathers simple molecules and combines them to make molecules that are more complex
Codon: a sequence of three nucleotides that together form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule
Pancreas: A long, irregularly shaped gland in vertebrate animals that is located behind the stomach and is part of the digestive system. It secretes hormones (insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin) into the bloodstream and digestive enzymes into the small intestine or gut.
Nucleic Acids: made from monomers or nucleotides, essential for all known
Translation: process in which ribosomes in a cell's cytoplasm create proteins, following transcription of DNA to RNA in the cell's nucleus (one of the important steps in central dogma)
Protein Folding:the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation
Anti-Codon: sequence of three adjacent nucleotides located on one end of transfer RNA.
Polypeptide: chain of amino acids
Hydrogen Bonds: a weak chemical bond between an electronegative atom, such as fluorine, oxygen, or nitrogen, and a hydrogen atom bound to another electronegative atom.
Cytoplasm:the material or protoplasm within a living cell, excluding the nucleus
Rough ER: network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
Endoplasmic Reticulum:a network of membranous tubules within the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell, continuous with the nuclear membrane
Glogi Apparatis: gathers simple molecules and combines them to make molecules that are more complex
Codon: a sequence of three nucleotides that together form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule
Pancreas: A long, irregularly shaped gland in vertebrate animals that is located behind the stomach and is part of the digestive system. It secretes hormones (insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin) into the bloodstream and digestive enzymes into the small intestine or gut.
Nucleic Acids: made from monomers or nucleotides, essential for all known
Translation: process in which ribosomes in a cell's cytoplasm create proteins, following transcription of DNA to RNA in the cell's nucleus (one of the important steps in central dogma)
Protein Folding:the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation
Anti-Codon: sequence of three adjacent nucleotides located on one end of transfer RNA.
Polypeptide: chain of amino acids
Hydrogen Bonds: a weak chemical bond between an electronegative atom, such as fluorine, oxygen, or nitrogen, and a hydrogen atom bound to another electronegative atom.
Cytoplasm:the material or protoplasm within a living cell, excluding the nucleus
Reflection
Overall, I thought that this project was really interesting. I learned a l.ot about insulin and got a deeper understanding of central dogma. Reserching a specific protein also helped me get a closer look at this process and now I fully understand the importance of insulin. One thing I could have done better is to better prepare. When we were creating our insulin jeopardy, we had trouble finding good questions that fit with what info we needed to include in there. We tried to just go right into it, but that proved difficult, so eventually we produced a rough draft on paper which we then put in the online jeopardy game. We could have been more efficient time wise, but in the end we made a really good presentation. It was really fun to present it to the class, and I felt like it was a really fun and unique way to learn.
Investigation Into Homeostasis
Homeostasis- |
The tendency of our bodies to want to keep a balanced range of function, anywhere from blood temperature to your heart rate!
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Our Experiment:
My group and I decided to investigate our kidney's ability to maintain homeostasis. We thought this would be interesting because I have a third kidney!
The Kidneys and Urination by Casey Elmhirst, Eliza Roesler, Emma Reid, Hannah Bergo, Rebecca Oblites.
Abstract:
Urination can represent health and what is happening in our bodies. We wanted to test how water affected our bodies in result of urination. Our experiment was conducted between 4 people, each had to drink a specific amount of water. Over the time period, we recorded the frequency and time of urination. The results are over the course of two 16 hour session.
Intro:
The kidneys help maintain homeostasis by regulating the concentration and volume of body fluids. They also excrete waste that would otherwise be toxic to the body. The kidneys filter excess fluid out of blood as well as other substances, such as excess ions and metabolic wastes, which mainly consist of urea and uric acid. These products are filtered out of the blood and combined with water before exiting the body in the form of urine. The kidneys use the hormones Atrial Natiuretic Peptide, Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System, and ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone) to maintain sodium and water levels and keep them balanced, and also to control blood pressure and volume. The balancing relation to blood versus sodium and water fluctuates throughout the body. The kidneys help keep the systems balanced in relation to other systems.
We chose the test we did because we can see how much drinking water affects the body and the kidneys and how the body will have to adjust to continue homeostasis. We hope to find out what the symptoms of this are.
Materials:
The materials we used were 4 people, 12 water bottles, a clock/watch, and recording tools. We chose our 4 subjects based on the fact if they had 2 kidneys, were high school girls and all 15 years old. That was our requirements to try to get this as similar and accurate as possible.
Our procedure started with a scientific question: How does water affect your urine and help the body keep homeostasis through the kidneys?
Our hypothesis was that the more water you drink, the more frequent you will pee and the lighter the color the water will be. The purpose of the experiment was to find out how water changes the frequency of your urination and how the color changes. We had two different experiments, the FIRST in RED and the SECOND in BLUE.
Person 1 would drink no water from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (subject 2)(subject 1).
Person 2 would drink one water bottle from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (4)(3).
Person 3 would drink two water bottles from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (3)(4).
Person 4 would drink three water bottles from 20:00:00 - 8:00:00 (1)(2). Our Methods are below as follows:
My group and I decided to investigate our kidney's ability to maintain homeostasis. We thought this would be interesting because I have a third kidney!
The Kidneys and Urination by Casey Elmhirst, Eliza Roesler, Emma Reid, Hannah Bergo, Rebecca Oblites.
Abstract:
Urination can represent health and what is happening in our bodies. We wanted to test how water affected our bodies in result of urination. Our experiment was conducted between 4 people, each had to drink a specific amount of water. Over the time period, we recorded the frequency and time of urination. The results are over the course of two 16 hour session.
Intro:
The kidneys help maintain homeostasis by regulating the concentration and volume of body fluids. They also excrete waste that would otherwise be toxic to the body. The kidneys filter excess fluid out of blood as well as other substances, such as excess ions and metabolic wastes, which mainly consist of urea and uric acid. These products are filtered out of the blood and combined with water before exiting the body in the form of urine. The kidneys use the hormones Atrial Natiuretic Peptide, Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System, and ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone) to maintain sodium and water levels and keep them balanced, and also to control blood pressure and volume. The balancing relation to blood versus sodium and water fluctuates throughout the body. The kidneys help keep the systems balanced in relation to other systems.
We chose the test we did because we can see how much drinking water affects the body and the kidneys and how the body will have to adjust to continue homeostasis. We hope to find out what the symptoms of this are.
Materials:
The materials we used were 4 people, 12 water bottles, a clock/watch, and recording tools. We chose our 4 subjects based on the fact if they had 2 kidneys, were high school girls and all 15 years old. That was our requirements to try to get this as similar and accurate as possible.
Our procedure started with a scientific question: How does water affect your urine and help the body keep homeostasis through the kidneys?
Our hypothesis was that the more water you drink, the more frequent you will pee and the lighter the color the water will be. The purpose of the experiment was to find out how water changes the frequency of your urination and how the color changes. We had two different experiments, the FIRST in RED and the SECOND in BLUE.
Person 1 would drink no water from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (subject 2)(subject 1).
Person 2 would drink one water bottle from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (4)(3).
Person 3 would drink two water bottles from 20:00:00 - 12:00:00 (3)(4).
Person 4 would drink three water bottles from 20:00:00 - 8:00:00 (1)(2). Our Methods are below as follows:
- Continue life as normal and each test subject can only drink the certain amount of water for the time period (20:00:00 to 12:00:00)
- Mark each time you pee and the color of your pee.
- Continue throughout the day but stop water restrictions at 12 but continue to report time and color as usual until 4:00pm
- When completed record all the data from the other test subjects and mark as a graph
- Compare each amount of water drunk to the amount and color of pee
- Analyse data and share
- Day 2: each subject switches places with another and records the data for their different amount of water intake
- Complete the same procedure as day 1 for day 2 just with different amounts of water intake
Results: Our results were that people who drank more water their pee color was lighter. Those who drank less water or no water had darker pee. In our first test, the people who drank more water had light yellow pee, and some clear. Those who didn’t drink a lot of water or drank none had yellow pee. In our second test, more people had light yellow pee, as a sign of hydration. Less people had clear pee, because only one person was drinking more than 2 bottles of water during the time period. More people had light yellow pee than any other color because 2 people were drinking between 1-2 bottles of water during the testing period. Only 16.75% of people had yellow pee because only one person was not drinking water during this testing period.
Frequency(results p2): The subjects who drank the most water peed the most, or in one case equalled in comparison to the subjects who drank little water. Although it did not differ in between for most people, in subject 1,test the first day she drank 3 water bottles and went 5 times compared to the second day which she drank no water and only urinated twice. In subject 2’s test, she did not drink any water the first day and then drank 3 bottles, but her frequency of urination stayed the same. We conclude that the amount may change over time, but with our short experimentation we didn’t see a consistent level of change.
Discussion: Our data felt more inconclusive than informational. People were very good at recording when they peed and what color it was. The data didn’t really help inform us about how the body maintains homeostasis through the kidneys in the way we wanted it to, but it did tell us that, in general, the more water you drink, the more you peed because your body was trying to get rid of the extra waste in your body. We should only have focused on number of times we peed rather than when and what color it was. Our group felt that color reflected what you ate rather than how much water you drank. We also didn’t have anything to compare the color to. These were our only errors. Other tests we could do would be to extend the time, increase the amount of water we drink, and have a more controlled environment.
Discussion: Our data felt more inconclusive than informational. People were very good at recording when they peed and what color it was. The data didn’t really help inform us about how the body maintains homeostasis through the kidneys in the way we wanted it to, but it did tell us that, in general, the more water you drink, the more you peed because your body was trying to get rid of the extra waste in your body. We should only have focused on number of times we peed rather than when and what color it was. Our group felt that color reflected what you ate rather than how much water you drank. We also didn’t have anything to compare the color to. These were our only errors. Other tests we could do would be to extend the time, increase the amount of water we drink, and have a more controlled environment.
Reflection
This project was really intriguing because it was a pretty well-known concept to us, yet we learned a bunch of new things. We chose the urinary system and how our body maintains it in an effort to stay in a balanced range of motion. This was interesting to me, as you could see, as my urinary process was quite different, so I basically have the advantage of having cleaner blood because I have an extra kidney. I ended up not being able to participate in this experiment because of my condition, but I was still able to help record data and reach results. A thing we could have done better was organization. We didn't know at first that we had to do at least two examples of each variable, so we had to switch it up a bit at the end and add an extra day to our experiment so we had two people doing each part. Overall this was pretty difficult, but it was a really fun project. Even though our results were mostly inconclusive, we learned a lot about pee!