Medina, Ma. Beatrix DL.

4Bio1

August 25, 2016

Embryology

1. Define transcription.
Transcription is the first step of gene expression. In transcription, a
process involving the duplication of information into a new strand called
messenger RNA, occurs.
An enzyme called RNA polymerase aids in the process to produce
complementary strands of the DNA. In line with this, coding strand is used as
a reference point. 5 -> 3 direction is the strand usually used for
transcription. Also, base pairing in duplicating a copy of RNA contains uracil
instead of thymine.
Transcription is defined as the process of duplicating information in a
strand of DNA into a messenger RNA (mRNA).
2. How is transcription important in the development of organism?
Transcription is important in the development of an organism because
it allows the changes in the morphology of the cell used by the organism. The
cell and its biological functions are also related to transcription.
3. Give one concrete example of transcriptional control in any model organism
(select one paper/article/publication) and summarize it.
Post-transcriptional mechanisms play a central role in regulating gene
expression during oogenesis and early embryogenesis. Growing oocytes
accumulate an enormous quantity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), but
transcription decreases dramatically near the end of growth and is
undetectable during meiotic maturation. Following fertilization, the embryo is
initially transcriptionally inactive and then becomes active at a speciesspecific stage of early cleavage. Meanwhile, beginning during maturation and
continuing after fertilization, the oocyte mRNAs are eliminated, allowing the
embryonic genome to assume control of development. How the mammalian
oocyte manages the storage, translation, and degradation of the huge
quantity and diversity of mRNAs that it harbors has been the focus of
enormous research effort and is the subject of this review. We discuss the
roles of sequences within the 3'-untranslated region of certain mRNAs and
the proteins that bind to them, sequence-non-specific RNA-binding proteins,
and recent studies implicating ribonucleoprotein processing (P-) bodies and
cytoplasmic lattices. We also discuss mechanisms that may control the
temporally regulated translational activation of different mRNAs during
meiotic maturation, as well as the signals that trigger silencing and
degradation of the oocyte mRNAs. We close by highlighting areas for future
research including the potential key role of small RNAs in regulating gene
expression in oocytes.
Source:
Clark, H.J. (2012), Post-transcriptional control of gene expression during mouse
oogenesis. PubMed, 55(1), 1-21. doi: 10.1007/978-3-643-30406-4_1