Abstract: The Difference Between DNA and Computer Programs

Grade: 7

Category: Computer Science

Questions:

1. How often do genetic mutations affect an amino acid chain?

2. How often do mutations affect a computer program?

Hypotheses

1. I believed that in 10 trials, changing bases at the nucleotide level would always lead to a change in amino acid sequences resulting from translation (all 10 trials would lead to false).

2. I believed that 50% of the time the program would change and 50% of the time it would not change.

Procedures

1. I used a programming language called Lisp and a programming environment called Dr. Racket to program the project. I made a program that allowed me to pair A with T and C with G (the Nucleic Acids). Then I tested out some basic functions. I reused the programs I had already made to help me. I made a function called list-compare that told if a list was the same or not and I used that in my final program called, “Ribosome.” Now I was ready for my experiment. I made a basic DNA strand with 20 codons and copied it ten times in each of those ten copies I took out one letter and put in another. Making mutated strands I then used ribosome to translate and compare the translated strands (proteins).

2. Then I used a simple program called add6, which adds 6 to a number. I copied it ten times to simulate mutations. Then I took the copies and took out one letter out of everyone and replaced it with another. I was ready to compare the basic and mutated programs.

Experiment 1 Results

1. False

2. True

3. True

4. False

5. False

6. False

7. False

8. False

9. False

10. False

Experiment 2 Results

1. Error / Change

2. Error/Change

3. Error I Change

4. Error / Change

5. Error / Change

6. Error I Change

7. Error I Change

8. Error I Change

9. Error I Change

10. Error / Change

Conclusions

1. For the first test 80% of the time it was false. This surprised me because before I was thinking about all the possibilities and how little the amount of same chains there were. Now I see that the amino acids are close when not connected, for instance: Take Proline there are 4 ways to make it. CCC, CCG, CCA, CCT change 1 letter at the end of a CC codon and you get Proline again. This proves my hypothesis was false.

2. The computer would not take the change. I looked back and I realized the reason for this was that the computer isn’t as robust as DNA because computers have help from people and they don’t need to advance or fix themselves while DNA does. Thank You.

Bibliography

• “DNA movie shown in class. Reference non available.”

• Dr. Racket, http:Ilracket-lang.orgl

• McDou gal Littell Life Science. Evanston, IL: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dfla