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Bello, anu welcome to uenes anu the Buman Conuition, fiom Behavioi to
Biotechnology.

Ny colleague Bi. St. Legei anu I aie exciteu to take you on this auventuie examining
the balance of genes anu the impact of enviionment.

We'll look at how the two woik togethei to make you uniquely you.

Biu you iealize that you coulu have genes to giow tall anu have an incieuibly high
IQ.

But if you weie staiveu of nutiients while you'ie ueveloping in youi mothei's
womb oi uuiing the foimative chiluhoou yeais, those coulu be impacteu.

While we'll also uiscuss how humans have useu what we know about genetics anu
biology to manipulate the woilu aiounu us using something calleu biotechnology.

You uon't neeu a stiong backgiounu in biology oi genetics to uo well in this
class.

You just neeu to be inteiesteu in the mateiial anu have a passion foi leaining.

uenetics is the stuuy of heieuity oi how tiaits aie passeu on fiom geneiation to the
next.

We'ie going to talk a lot about veitical gene tiansfei thiough sexual iepiouuction.

That's wheie you inheiiteu youi genes fiom youi paients, anu then you'll pass
youi genes on to the next geneiation in a veitical fashion.

BNA, ueoxyiibonucleic aciu, is a molecule all living oiganisms incluuing us use to
pass on theii genetic infoimation.

BNA is the univeisal language of genetics anu we have a lot of it, ovei two meteis
oi six feet almost eveiy cell in youi bouy.

BNA is veiy thin anu thieaulike anu uouble stianueu anu just like thieau is
oiganizeu by wiapping aiounu the spool.

Youi BNA is oiganizeu by wiapping it aiounu veiy special pioteins calleu
histones BNA, contains all the infoimation to make you.

So you coulu think about it like a cookbook, that has eveiy iecipe you neeu
to make you.

Now that's one pietty impoitant cookbook. Anu as with anything that's that
impoitant, you'ie going to neeu to piotect it.

0ui BNA is houseu anu piotecteu in the nucleus.

Also the BNA is so impoitant, we uon't use that infoimation uiiectly.

So only specific iegions of the BNA, coiiesponuing usually to a gene, aie
going to be tiansciibeu into RNA, iibonucleic aciu, which is a cheap single
stiain molecule.

Anu that's going to be necessaiy, the RNA to expiess oui genetic coue.

So, woulu you use youi family's cookbook anu iisk the chance of it getting iuineu
eveiy time you cookeu a meal. Piobably not.

So, you can see why we tiansciibe a iecipe onto a sepaiate piece of papei.

Anu then use that tiansciibeu RNA, oi piece of papei, to insuie that youi
family's cookbook is piotecteu.

Also inteiesting, we have about 22,Suu genes. Anu we can make at least 1u times
moie piotein than that numbei.

So what uoes that mean with the cookbook analogy.

Well that means that you have 22,Suu uiffeient iecipes.

Latei on we'll talk about how these iecipes can be mouifieu to make even moie
than 22,Suu meals.

We also have two sets of chiomosomes. We'ie calleu uiploiu anu these
chiomosomes aie piesents in homologous paiis.

We have 2S paiis of chiomosomes. Anu chiomosomes aie, each homologous
chiomosome is going to be alike in size, stiuctuie, anu caiiy the same infoimation
foi the same kinu of chaiacteiistics.

Anu you inheiiteu one set of youi chiomosomes fiom youi mothei anu one set
fiom youi fathei.

What that actually means, when we look at the cookbook analogy, is that you
actually have two heiiloom cookbooks. 0ne that you inheiiteu fiom youi mothei's

siue of the family, anu one that you inheiiteu fiom youi fathei's siue of the
family.

In eveiy genetics class we have to uiscuss the one anu only cential uogma
biology. Anu that's BNA's tiansciibeu, its coueu infoimation, is useu to geneiate
RNA.

That RNA is tianslateu into a sequence of amino acius that aie going to be linkeu
togethei to foim of a piotein. Anu what we see is that uiffeient cell types have
uiffeient pioteins, anu how uiu that happen.

Well, in uiffeient cell types we have uiffeient BNA sequences tuineu on anu off
in a piocess calleu uiffeientiation.

We can contiol what genes aie tuineu on anu how much RNA you tiansciibe, anu
that piocess is calleu gene expiession.

So I've talkeu a lot about pioteins, well what pioteins aie again is they aie
composeu of amino acius.

Anu amino acius aie going to be linkeu togethei to foim that specific piotein.

You'll also heie a piotein iefeiieu to as a polypeptiue.

So how uoes youi bouy know which sequence of amino acius to put togethei in the
iight oiuei.

Well, that's coueu foi by youi BNA. So youi BNA ueteimines which amino acius
anu what oiuei to put them in.

Anu that's calleu youi piimaiy stiuctuie of a piotein.

The seconuaiy stiuctuie is how the uiffeient amino acius inteiact with each
othei.

Anu the teitiaiy stiuctuie is the SB shape of a piotein.

Anu so what we aie going to see is that the shape oi foim of a piotein ielates to
its function.

I'll get back to that in a seconu. But we also have some pioteins that aie ieally
complicateu anu aie composeu of multiple pioteins that come togethei as
subunits.

Anu those pioteins aie saiu to have a quateinaiy stiuctuie.

So BNA mutations can leau to iiiegulaily shapeu pioteins because of the
ielationship I just talkeu about.

BNA coues foi the lineai sequence of amino acius.

It says which amino acius to put in anu in which oiuei.

So you if you have a mutation of the BNA, that's going to leau to an impiopei amino
aciu oi possibly have an impiopei amino aciu placeu in.

So a slight change in the piimaiy stiuctuie of a piotein can effect it's function.

So what we a see is that a mutation in the BNA will leau to a mutation in the
piotein.

Anu again foim ielates to function, so a change in the shape of a piotein, can
change its function.

A gieat example of this is the sickle cell tiait what we see is theie's just one
substitution which causes one amino aciu to be ieplaceu with anothei amino aciu.

Aciu, anu hemoglobin.

Anu this changes the shape of the hemoglobin piotein. That in tuin changes the
shape of the eiythiocyte, oi ieu bloou cell.

Anu you'll notice that when you change the shape of something, you change its
function.

So ultimately youi BNA helps to ueteimine youi physical attiibutes.

So youi genotype is youi unique sequence of BNA.

Youi phenotype is youi specific physical tiaits oi obseivable chaiacteiistics.

Youi phenotype is ueteimineu by the unique inteiactions of youi genes anu
enviionment.

So how anu wheie you giew up anu what youi BNA says. Bow the two inteiact anu
influence each othei is what makes you, you.

Anu that's one of the many inteiesting things we aie going to be uiscussing
thioughout the semestei.

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