Today we used the Wolfram/Alpha website to look up genetic information.
For homework, I want you to play with the site and see what you can find out about genes and/or chromosomes and/or DNA codes. You can find the site here:
Wolfram/Alpha Genetics
There will be prizes in the following categories:
Most creative/entertaining
Most interesting
Most weird
Have fun!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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13 comments:
The most interesting part I found is that chromosomes 23 and 24 are the "X" and "Y" Chromosomes, respectively.
What I thought was the most interesting is how long the code is for chromosome 2. I kept clicking the more button until I had to stop because the computer couldn’t put all of the letters on the computer. The scroll button was tiny and there was still the …
AAGCTAGCTAGC (genome sequence) is 12 base pairs long
Chromosome 5 is 12.65 million base pairs long
Chromosome 2 is 25000 base pairs long
Chromosome (human chromosome) is 63.81 megabase pairs long
Chromosome (human chromosome) is 154.9 megabase pairs long
Sodium channel, nonvoltage- gated 1 alpha is 28.7 kilobase pairs long
Cone- rod homeobox (human gene) is 21.48 kilobase pairs long
Calcitonin pseudogene (human gene) is 700 base pairs long
Chromosome 6 is 207.6 kilobase pairs long
Myoglobin (protein) weighs 17.617 kilodaltons
Centromere protein B is 599 amino acids long
The most interesting fact I found about chromosomes is that chromosome x is actually a human chromosome and it has 154.9 Mbp (or mega base pairs). I also found it interesting that along with Bjoe2195 that when I was looking at chromosome 2 that the code for it was so long, and that no matter how many times I kept clicking it the code went on and on and on until my computer also couldn’t handle it anymore and stopped giving me the code.
One cool thing I found was that chromosome 2 was the only chromosome with no decimal in the megabase pairs. I also found that the lower number chromosomes had higher mega base pairs. Does this mean they are less sophisticated? Example: Chromosome 2 has 243 megabase pairs, and chromosome 21 has 46.94 megabase pairs. Does that mean that each pair is more sophisticated in chromosome 21? In the chromosome 21 idiogram, each MB is bigger and different colors than chromosome 2. I also found that types of chromosomes vary. EX. Sex chromosomes, somatic chromosomes etc. The coolest thing I found was that the first time the word chromosome was used, was in 1889. The word is from a German and Greek root.
One of the things I found interesting, is with the DNA sequence for the chromosomes, there was no pattern in which the letters were ordered.
They chromosome is a very special chromosome. One because it only is 20 cm long compared to the 1 chromosome which is 84 cm long or in inches 33 inches more that two feet of one chromosome wrapped around a protein inside a cell which is only 30 micro meters big. That is like trying to wrap one tape measure that is 20 feet long into a box that is only 6 inches big. It would be nearly impossible. Also the Y chromosome is only carried by males and this makes males more likely to have a mutation on the x chromosome because there is no back up like females have. So far there are not many genes found on the y chromosome.
It truly amazes me how much coding goes into a tiny itty bitty part of these chromosomes. I look at the amount of coding and then down to see how far into the chromosome I’m looking and all I can do is stare at it in awe just thinking “……..whoa” when I realize that I’m only about a few spaces into the chromosome shown and my page is completely filled up- and this is just one teensy part of the DNA! It’s SO hard for me to imagine how intricate DNA really is and how one small mutation in any of these chromosomes has such a huge impact on living organisms. There are 46 chromosomes. It makes me think, dumbfounded, of how much coding that could possibly be and just how much every code means.
Chromosome 5 is 12.65 million base pairs.
When you copy the scnn1a chromosome sequenceinto a word document, it is 9 pages long!
Chromosome x (human chromosome) is 154.9 mega base pairs.
Chromosome 19 is 63.81 mega base pairs.
Cone-rod homebox is 21.48 KBp.
The protein myoglobin weighs 17.617 kilodaltons.
Centromere protein b is 599 amino acids long. It weighs 65.04 kilodaltons.
AAGCTAGCTAGC (genome sequence) has 12 base pairs.
Chromosome 5 has 12.65 million base pairs. I clicked more until it stopped. I had to press more 9 times to get through all the base pairs! THATS A LOT OF BASE PAIRS! How can all that fit into one itty bitty part of these chromosomes? It truly amazes me that that's actually possible.
After like 4 or 5 mores you had to scroll down the little screen thingy to see all of them and by the time I pressed nine the scroll thinger was like microscopic! It's crazy!
I made an interesting observation on human chromosomes on the Wolfram Alpha site. It seems that the bigger chromosome number the less mega base pairs it has. For example, chromosome 9 is a human chromosome that is 140.3 mega base pairs long. But, chromosome 10 is also a human chromosome except it is 135.4 mega base pairs long. I thought that was pretty interesting.
I thought it was pretty cool how when I typed in just a few of the letters in that special alphabet such as atacatagagcat and I got 129 matches. I noticed the more letters you put in the less matches you got and when you put in less you got huge amounts of matches. One amount of letters I put in had so many matches it didn't even load a quarter of the loading bar before my computer couldn't handle it and the session timed out. It was pretty cool.
I found out that chromosome 19 has 63.81 Mega base pairs. I thought that it was pretty awesome because there are so many pairs in a tiny chromosome in your tiny cells. I'm wondering how small each pair is though?
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