Several years ago, a movie, The Blob, was popular in the United States. The movi

Question

Several years ago, a movie, The Blob, was popular in the United States. The movie described a cell that had grown so large that it was capable of engulfing large structures such as buildings, cars, people, trees, etc. There was no end to The Blob's increase in size. It appeared that nothing could stop it. A. Explain why the growth of 'the Blob' from an individual cell is not possible. In your answer, discuss each of the following the plasma membrane, DNA, the ER, secretory vesicles and receptor tyrosine kinases. The Army, scientists, and politicians could not devise a strategy to kill the Blob. Gunfire, swords, and knives would only temporarily puncture the plasma membrane. Explosions, using various bombs, fragmented the Blob but each fragment quickly grew into a Blob, Oh No! B. How would you destroy (or control) the Blob. Your answer must use cell biological strategies Professor M. Osis designed a drug that alters the structure of a nueleotide. She determined that the modified nucleotide could be incorporated into the sister DNA strand during replication. Upon additional study, she determined that the drug caused death of cells after completion of mitosis. A. Does this drug have the ability to halt cancer? If yes, explain why. If no, list the properties of an anti-cancer drug. B. Given this finding, is it likely that Professor Ms Osis will be rich and famous? In other words, is her finding significant Explain why or why not You have joined the research team of Dr. Marilyn Hart, a Nobel Laurate. For your first project, she provided genomic clones of two genes. Using Bioinformatics. you determined that both genes code for glycoproteins, hereafter referred to as MH1 and MH2.In addition, Bioinformatics revealed that MHI is likely an ER protein while MH2 is likely a transmembrane protein A. Design an experiment to determine the cell and tissue localizations of the two proteins. Remember-all you have is the genomic DNA. Include appropriate controls and detail about all necessary steps. B. Dr. Hart asks you to determine the MHI and MH2 biosynthetic pathways and the relative speed of the processes. Use the pulse-chase technique to design the experiment Use appropriate controls.

Explanation / Answer

Ans 1 a: "The Blob" can be a very interesting concept and wonderful movie, but at the end of the day it is just a fictitious concept and can't be possible in the real world at all. Let us understand what is being described in the movie. It is said Blob is a cell (note it is a single cell) which grows so large that it starts engulfing all the car, building and material whatever comes its way and keeps on increasing without any stop.

Now, Let us understand the scientific concept of a Cell. A single is made of the Plasma, covered by plasma membrane which contains small cellular contents in it like Mitochondria(powerhouse of the cell), Endoplasmic Reticulum(both smooth and rough), ribosomes, lysosomes, Golgi apparatus, Nucleus (which contains the genetic material in it).

All these cellular contents are properly packed in a cell and will always need to energy to work.In fact, if we look into unicellular organisms like Amoeba, the cellular contents will need energy and take up energy for the whole cell to work efficiently!

Now, the cell itself will not allow anything to enter its inner region, because the cell is permeable to only a few things.It keeps a check on what is entering inside it.As it is shown in the movie,It engulf any thing which enters the cell is not possible actually.The cell would never intake non-living/ futile things which doesn't have energy in it,because that may not only be waste for cell but also can kill it. Moerver, the cell organelles are so sensitive inside that they might distrupt and burst out if they reach higher limit.They would never grow huge in size.Infact, a unicelluar organisms are very minute and microscopic!

Ans1 B: Destroying the Blob in Biological way would be very easy as given below:

-Since it is a unicellular organism and has a cell membrane or Plasma membrane, we can use various ingredients or chemicals which interfere with the working of the cell wall and break it out.

Chemical like Bleach, Hydrogen peroxide will break the cell wall and disrupt the plasma membrane of the Blob,which will cause all the content of the cell to come out and kill the cell.

-Another way could be by using Antibiotic like Penicillin. The Fungal related product will hamper the further division of the cell and hence the cell will stop growing and will be dead.

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