Purpose: The purpose of this lab was to find the differences in hemoglobin of gorillas, horses, and humans
Tables:
Organism
Number of Differences
Horse and Gorilla
27
Horse and Human
25
Human and Gorilla
1
Amino Acid
Abbreviation
Human
Gorilla
Horse
Alanine
Ala
14
14
15
Arginine
Arg
3
2
4
Aspartic Acid
Asp
13
13
14
Cytesine
Cys
2
2
1
Glutamic Acid
Glu
11
11
13
Glycine
Gly
12
13
14
Histidine
His
8
8
8
Leucine
Leu
17
19
19
Lysine
Lys
11
11
11
Methionine
Met
1
1
1
Phenylolanine
Phe
8
8
8
Proline
Pro
7
7
5
Serine
Ser
5
5
6
Threonine
Thr
3
7
3
Tryptophan
Try
2
2
2
Tyrosine
Tyr
3
3
3
Valine
Val
18
18
17
Analysis:
1. Define Transcription- the converting of DNA to mRNA
2. Define Translation- the converting of mRNA to a series of amino acids
3. How many differences between the:
Horse and Gorilla: 27
Horse and Human: 25
Human and Gorilla: 1
4. Which two organisms seem to have the more similar hemoglobin? Human and Gorilla
5. The sequence of amino acids corresponds to the sequence of base molecules in DNA. Are the base sequences of DNA most similar in humans and gorillas, gorillas and horses, or humans and horses? Human and Gorilla
6. What genetic mechanism may have been responsible for the base sequence changes between humans and gorillas? Point Mutations
7. Explain the following statement: Upon examination, segments of human and gorilla DNA responsible for inheritance of hemoglobin should appear almost chemically alike. This means that evolution has separated humans and gorillas, which were once the same species, by a simple point mutation of the hemoglobin protein.
8. Give reasons for supporting or rejecting the following statements: Evolutionary relationships are stronger between living organisms that have close biochemical similarities than between living organisms that do not have close biochemical similarities. This is true because mutations or point mutations are the only reason why