Central Dogma – From Genes to Proteins

As

Prerna continues reading about aquaporin-based membranes, she learns that one

of the key challenges companies face is the mass production of aquaporins.

Synthesizing such a complex protein purely through abiotic methods (using purely

physio-chemical processes) is extremely difficult due to its intricate

structure.

Drawing

on her knowledge of the central dogma of molecular biology, Prerna wonders

whether aquaporins could be produced using recombinant DNA technology. She

researches further and discovers that this approach is indeed feasible. The

following figure shows a simple schematic of recombinant DNA technology, and

the bottom figure shows some key amino acids present in the aquaporin protein

(also consider the amino acids present in the NPA motifs, and the amino acids H,G

and R).

She comes across a study that is designing a recombinant plasmid to express an aquaporin protein.

They want to insert a 15-nucleotide-long

gene sequence that encodes for a critical segment of the aquaporin

transmembrane domain. Based on the amino acids found in aquaporin (as shown in

the image), choose the correct answers with respect to recombinant DNA

technology and which of the following DNA

sequences is the most ideal choice? (Assume that the DNA strand is the

coding strand).