DNA+Pasta

=DNA Pasta!=


 * This is a project we have been doing with our students. This was not my original idea,**
 * but I am willing to share what we have done!**


 * "**We are learning about DNA and how genetic information is passed through this structure."

is the same as

"0101011101100101001000000110000101110010011001010010000001101100011001010110000101110010011011100110 1001011011100110011100100000011000010110001001101111011101010111010000100000010001000100111001000001 0010000001100001011011100110010000100000011010000110111101110111001000000110011101100101011011100110 0101011101000110100101100011001000000110100101101110011001100110111101110010011011010110000101110100 0110100101101111011011100010000001101001011100110010000001110000011000010111001101110011011001010110 0100001000000111010001101000011100100110111101110101011001110110100000100000011101000110100001101001 011100110010000001110011011101000111001001110101011000110111010001110101011100100110010100101110"

in binary code! Binary code is a language for computers to communicate with each other.

All living organisms also have a code that communicates information, and that code is found in the DNA. DNA is made up of four different chemicals that form patterns. These patterns can be read by different pieces of the cell. The four chemicals, or bases, are:
 * Adenine
 * Thymine
 * Guanine
 * Cytosine

Three bases in a row form the code for one amino acid.

Adenine-Cytosine-Thymine creates the code for the amino acid Threonine. Here are some other codes:



A DNA strand consists of two chains of amino acids hooked together. As seen above, Adenine always joins with Thymine, and Guanine with Cytosine.



A&T always hook together. C&G always hook together.

Therefore, the complimentary strand for


 * AAA AAA CCT CCC GAA**

would be


 * TTT TTT GGA GGG CTT**

for a pair that looks like


 * AAA AAA CCT CCC GAA**
 * TTT TTT GGA GGG CTT**

The top line carries the information with a real set of amino acids. The bottom line is just there for support. They are just the matching chemicals, but both are helpful in reproduction.

Our class made chains of DNA using pasta. We used:
 * uncooked rigatoni or penne pasta
 * uncooked fiori or wagon-wheel pasta
 * yarn
 * colored pipe cleaners
 * white
 * black
 * red
 * green

The tube pasta represents a phosphate. The round pasta represents a sugar. If DNA looks like a ladder, then the pastas make up the sides of the ladder. The pipe cleaners make up the rungs of the ladder with the correct colors matching.

We used the following key:

=Adenine=white= =Thymine=black= =Cytosine=red= =Guanine=green=



This would be Guanine-Adenine-Adenine which combines to look like:



And within a bigger chain it might look like:

Or even:



Additional Resources:

Contact me if you have any questions. Thanks! -[|Heath]