DNA Sequencing Activity

For Biology we did a DNA Sequencing Activity. We sequenced three different patient's DNA (Norm, Abby, Bob and Carol) in order to determine if they had any diseases. Above were my results after "cracking the code" as you might say. It displays each patient's DNA sequence as well as the proteins currently located in their bodies.


I used a Condon Usage Table to figure out how the DNA structure went from that to proteins. There were simple steps to take. For example:


To find "AUG":

1. The first base is A. Find A in the first column. Put your figure on it.
2. The second base is U. Find U in the center columns. Move your finger on this group.
3. The third base is G. Look at the last letters. Look for a G at the end.

Codon Usage Table

Here were my results after everything:

From the graph you can see that Abby had only one base change or Point Mutation. She does not have the disease because her percentile is very high and it very close to the "Norm" bases. Like Abby, Bob has the same percentage. He has one point of mutation but his is in a different base. So, instead of the potion being LYS it is STOP. This is called Truncation Mutation. Obviously Bob does not have a disease because his bases are very similar to the "Norm" bases as well.

Now, unlike Abby and Bob, Carol has more than half of her bases different from everybody. On the graph it shows that she is a 78%. She has to be the only diseased because she is the only one with a different sequence then the rest of the group! :)

All and all like I said it was a pretty simple activity, but I still learned how to do something off it. I found out that Norm and Bob have the DNA and protein sequence of the normal control, while Abby and Carol did not. All I really had to do was see if any matched Norm's for normal control because Norm's sequence was already listed as normal control. Like I said, this was a simple activity, but i still learned something :)