Today is the last lab with Dr. Vera, and I am very disappointed. He's a pure genius, and I've learned so much just by talking to him and asking him questions. He always answers my questions patiently and then points me to new questions, which is awesome. Today we learned something I thought was pretty incredible. I was aware that mRNA undergoes post-transcriptional processing which keeps the exons and removes the introns but I had not known the significance of this process. Dr. Vera explained to us that eukaryotic cells have an advantage because of this processing- it allows for specialization of cell functions and greater diversity of cell proteins by being selective. For instance, muscle cells may process their mRNA differently from brain cells to better fulfill their functions. Then this means a cell's DNA does not determine its destiny. Well, not directly. I think a cell's post-transcriptional processing is regulated by cell signals and chemicals... which are coded for by the cellular DNA. So the cell DNA regulates its own regulation... This is some amazing stuff. I am as excited as the time Lakers got Pau Gasol.
-Min Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment