Stormy evening

The second lecture was on regulation of gene expression. Our class was this evening, started at 3 pm because we went to NUCEL at SACC. The weather was definitely suitable for us to stay on our bed. But yeah, it was a bit stormy, and scary. Still, the class continued haha. 

Two types of modes of gene expression – Constitutive expression ( expressed at the same rate at all times) and inducible expression (in response to conditions.

Two types of regulation in cell – regulation of enzyme activity (feedback inhibition, allosteric inhibition) and regulation of enzyme synthesis ( gene expression, transcription ofmRNA – repression & induction).

Repressor blocks transcription and activator encourages transcription

For try Operon, when there is no tryptophan, the inactive repressor stay inactive, hence transcription will occur. When there is tryptophan, it will bind to the inactive repressor making it to be active. So the transcription is blocked.

For lac operon, when there is no lactose, it can’t bind to the active repressor in order to make it inactive, so the transcription process is OFF. But if there is lactose, lactose will bind to it and transcription process is ON.

Eventho it was raining outside, we managed to finish the lecture in an hour only! Well yeah, who doesn’t like class that ends early hehehe miss you Dr Wan!

Prof Katty :D

Today was our first class with Prof Datin Paduka Dr Khatijah. She will teach my class for four lectures- Microbial genetics. Our first lecture was on structure and function of genetic materials.

Genetics: is the science of heredity

Genome: genetic information in a cell

Chromosomes: structures containing DNA that carry genetic information

Genes: segments of DNA that code for functional products.

DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid. It is for storage of genetic information, self-duplication and inheritance and expression of genetic message.

RNA – ribonucleic acid

Nucleic acids- Adenine(A), Guanine(G), Cytosine(C), Thymine(T)[Uracil(U) in RNA]. The pair is AT/U(2 hydrogen bonds) and GC(3 hydrogen bonds).

Genotype is genetic composition of an organism, information that codes for all the characteristics.

Phenotype is actual expressed properties of an organism, which are observable characteristics and manifestation of genotype.

The process of producing protein from nucleic acid- DNA replication, transcription, translations. DNA replication always proceed from 5’ phosphate to 3’ hydroxyl.  It is proofreading by DNA polymerase. Transcription is synthesis of a complementary strand of RNA from a DNA template. Lastly, translation is a process in which information in the mRNA is used to dictate the amino acid sequence of a protein.

These are actually some of what we learned earlier today. The class was interesting of course. Because learning from someone who has so many experience and knowledge, we could listen to her story and became inspired. She shared some of her story, and I am looking forward to our next class!

Game equals to fun!

               So basically today, we played few games on eukaryotic topic. The games we played were – poison box(cilia, flagella, cytoplasm), roleplay(cell membrane), spin your ribosome, dart quizzes(nucleus), jumps lysosome jump, bingo(vacuole), smooth endoplasmic reticulum, wheel decide(RER), golgi penalty, and quiz oh quiz(mitochondria).

We covered the whole chapter by playing these games. What I get from today’s class was, it is not necessary for us having only formal classes. We actually need sometimes for informal classes. When I played these games, and when it came to my group to answer the question, we tried to find the answer. And from that, we get to know the answer and memorized it. We also listen to others’ answers. 

Other than that, Dr Wan asked us to make a mind map on virus topic. So this is my mindmap. That’s all :)

Algae And Fungi

              4 hours of lecture. YESSSSSSSSSS. We covered about algae and fungi. But before that, Dr Wan talked  a bit about our THANK A  MICROBE project. The winner is GROUP 2. And I do agree with it because one of the group members, Chew, explained everything in detail. So yes. They deserve it. Yeay congrats!

           Okay then we back to our lecture on algae. Actually we had covered this topic before. So I think I will not emphasize about it in this post as I have done it in previous post. But I want to talk a bit about algal bloom. It is actually caused by high nutrition in lake or pond. The high nutrition is due to a lot of dead plants and animals suspended in the lake or pond.  And where chemical changes occur, toxic gases will be releases. The production of toxin kills marine organisms such as small fishes. However it does not kill big fishes. In fact, big fishes eat those algae in order to clean the lake or pond back. If human consume that particular big fishes, then it will be harmful to human. There is also red tides which caused by dinoflagellates that produces brevetoxins. These brevetoxins could result in respiratory irritation in human.

 This is the picture of my marks for crossword activity. (I used hint few times, that is why hahahaha).

   For fungi, there are 4 types of fungi which are, chytrids (Chytridiomycota), zygote (Zygomycota), sac (Ascomycetes) and club (Basidiomycetes). There are few things that I actually think it is important to know,

• Fungi are classified and identified by spore type 
• Fungus spore and bacterial spore are different 
• Sexual and asexual reproduction occurs by formation of spores 
• Fungi act as decomposers ( recycling carbon, nitrogen and other elements to the ecosystem) 
•  Fungi modify habitat (lichen inhabit inhospitable places and make habitat suitable for life 
• Fungi act as spoilers decompose food/wood 
• Fungi improve plant growth 
• Fungi as food for animals and humans 
• Fungi as pathogens (it causes athletes foot, ringworm and yeast infection)

This is the picture of my marks for crossword activity. (The marks getting better hehe)

TODAY IS THE DAY!

      TODAY IS THE DAY. Today is our THANK A MICROBE exhibition. All of us are so nervous an excited at the same time. Nervous because there were judges(lecturer) who judged our project, and excited because it was our first exhibition ever! It actually went well (according to Dr Wan hehe). Am not gonna summarise  the event but here are what I learnt from this event. 

        First, expect the unexpected. To be honest, me and my group members did not expect at all that the questions  asked by the judges, would be asked. And as the result, we could answer none of the questions. My group chose Bacillus thuringiensis as our microbe for this project. And this microbe is widely used as biological pesticides. It kills harmful insects with its crystal proteins. The question was, what is the benefit of crystal proteins for the microbe itself? I seriously never thought of that. The judge said, “This Bt wont produce the crystal protein just for others’ benefit. It must benefit itself too”. Why I’d never thought of that……….

     

        Okay the second one is, if we really want to know about something, we gotta to do a lot of research about it. We cant just know about the surface, we must know externally and internally. Yup I admit, I just find things that were asked by Dr. Wan. I mean like I just find the points stated in the module. I should have did the research in a whole.

        Thirdly, okay the first question was given by Dr Wan. And my group couldn’t answer that question. Well the good thing was, after we couldn’t answer the question, we google it right away. We did that with every judges. So at the end, we gained more information, and yes, the last judge listened to the most informative presentation by us hahaha.

          Okay the last one. Don’t ever make up stories. Just say don’t know, when you don’t know. There is no point in lying. In fact, you are not going to help yourself at all. Just be honest. People understands us, I guess?

          So yes that’s all I think. Whatever it is, this was really new for me, and really make me more confident in giving presentation in English. And I hope Dr Wan satisfied with our exhibition. Thank you Dr Wan (for the food as well hehe). Here are some of the pictures at the exhibition.