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Cool Tool: The Cat Gag Tag Act, an Analogy
Type: Analogy
Topic: Translational Reading Frame
Grade Level: High School
Contributor: Steve Sylvester
School: Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
Purpose: To illustrate the concept of different reading frames and that only one frame may make "sense."
Materials: Handouts or overhead with the DNA sequence catgagtagact. Charts with genetic code.
Methods: Students "decode" the DNA sequence in all three frames as follows. Frame 1 = Cat Gag Tag Act. Frame 2 = c Atg Agt Aga Ct. Frame 3 = ca Tga Gta Gac T. Only in frame 1 does the translation actually spell real English words. This is a direct analogy to only one reading frame specifying a translated protein. Students can also translate the sequence in all three frames using their genetic code chart. Examples of start codons, stop codons, and degenerate coding are all present.
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last updated 06/15/04