Biology 160
NAME: _______________________________________
Reading Guide 08: Cell Signaling for Transcription and Translation
This is DUE: _________________
Come prepared to share your findings with your group.
*As before, please turn in only the Critical Thinking questions on a separate sheet of paper.
** Fill this reading guide out as you are reading the chapters. This will help you to pull out the important
information that will help us to understand how cells respond to the environment and reproduce.
Readings:  Essential Biology, 4th or 5th Ed. (Simon, Reece, & Dickey)
Ch 1, pg. 7-8 (Cells and Their DNA)
Ch 3, pg 49 (Figure 3.22)
Ch 5, pg. 87 (Cell Signaling)
Ch 11, pg. 205 (Cell Signaling).
Ch 10, pg. 172-187 (DNA Replication, Transcription, Translation)
While reading these chapters, constantly ask yourself, “How is this information helping me to understand how
my cells respond to the environment and reproduce?”
Chapter 1, pg 7-8 (Cells and Their DNA)
1. How do prokaryotes and eukaryotes store their DNA?
2. What are genes?
3. Do bacteria and humans use the same or different chemical language for their genes?
4. What are the letters of that chemical language?
5. How many letters might an average-sized gene have?
6. What are the examples of some instructions that a gene might be translated into?
7. What is the entire “book” of genetic instructions for an organism called?
8. How many DNA letters are in the human genome?
Chapter 3, Figure 3.22 (pg 49)
1. Redraw this figure and revise your definition of a “gene” to include this new information here:
Chapter 5, pg 87 (Cell Signaling):
1. The cells of our bodies TALK to each other?!?? How do they do this? Define signal transduction pathway
in your answer.
2. Critical Thinking: Applying the above information, how do you think our immune system cells (cells with
cell membranes and membrane proteins!) detect the presence of an invader in the body like a bacterium or a
virus?
Chapter 11, pg 205 (Cell Signaling):
1. Before you read the section in Chapter 11, look up the phrase “gene expression” in the glossary and write
down the definition here.
2. OK, now with gene and gene expression in mind, read through the section on Cell Signaling in Chapter 11.
Notice that we are now extending our knowledge to how some signal transduction pathways can lead to gene
expression. Redraw Figure 11.8 here and describe in words what is happening in each step.
3. Critical Thinking: OK, so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…What does this information MEAN to YOU? In
other words, if you took some of your very own cheek cells, as we did in our cell diversity lab, and looked at
them even more closely,
a) where would you find your genes (DO NOT say “in your closet”)
b) what biological macromolecule carries them
c) and, do you think that all of those proteins in your cheek cells that provide cell structure, that are
enzymes like those in cellular respiration, that transport molecules across the plasma membrane, etc… were
somehow “expressed” from those genes?
Chapter 10, pg. 172-187:
1. To all the words/phrases in the text that are in BOLD: Highlight in your text or rewrite them or organize
them in some way (like flash cards or a table) to help you to learn and understand them.
2. What were three “unique properties” of DNA that were not understood by the 1950’s (pg. 174):
3. Redraw Figure 10.1 to refresh your memory of polynucleotides with a sugar-phosphate backbone and the
nucleotide monomers.
4. What are the four bases found in DNA?
5. What are the four bases found in RNA?
6. As you read about the structure of DNA, note again the hydrogen bonds, the double helix, the sugarphosphate backbone, and which bases pair with each other.
7. Summarize the “template model” of DNA replication (make sure to note the usage of the names “parental”
and “daughter” DNA strands).
8. What is DNA polymerase and what does it do?
9. Make sure you can confidently answer the checkpoint questions as you go along. If not, write down your
questions here:
10. What is an organism’s “genotype”?
11. What is an organism’s “phenotype”? Give some examples.
12. Redraw Figure 10.8. Know and understand these terms and this flow of information. Include in your
drawing where the terms “genotype” and “phenotype” would best fit.
13. Redraw Figure 10.10. Know and understand these terms and this flow of information.
14. Do not memorize the genetic code, but do know how to use it to translate an mRNA codon to its appropriate
amino acid. Practice with the following:
a) AUG
b) UUA
c) UAA
d) GGG
e) GAUAACGCG
15. What are the dual functions of the triplet AUG?
16. Make sure you can confidently answer the checkpoint questions. If not, write down your questions here:
17. Simply put, what is transcription? “the transfer of…” (first sentence, pg 181)
18. What is the transcription enzyme?
19. Briefly describe the three phases of transcription:
a) initiation
b) elongation
c) termination
20. Describe the three types of RNA processing that happens in the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell:
21. Simply put, what is translation?
22. Describe the three “players” in translation:
a) mRNA
b) tRNA
c) ribosomes
23. Briefly describe the three phases of translation:
a) initiation
b) elongation
c) termination
24. Redraw Figure 10.20. Know and understand this figure.
25. Make sure you can confidently answer the checkpoint questions. If not, write down your questions here:
26. Critical Thinking: Did you notice the “ATP” in Figure 10.20? Knowing what you do about energy storage
in phosphate bonds, do you think that DNA replication, transcription, and translation are high-energy using or
low-energy using processes? Explain why.
27. Critical Thinking: Using the information you learned in this set of readings, explain how you think an
immune system cell would “see” a bacterium and respond by making some proteins to fight it off.