We’re going to use the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 to make a bracelet.
Here’s a fun, creative project that will help you explore some of the science around the virus SARS-CoV-2. That’s the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. We’re going to make a bracelet using the genetic sequence of the virus!
Safety: To do this activity, you’ll need to cut and bend wire, which may be hard for younger readers. Ask an adult to help.
In this activity you’re creating a wearable model of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence.
A complete sequence, like the one you selected from GenBank, is very long and contains a lot of information! This is known as a genome.
You’ll only be able to recreate a small portion of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in your bracelet, as it’s around
30 000 letters long. The human genome is even longer with more than three billion letters!
Scientists have only known about SARS-CoV-2 for a few months, but they’ve already discovered a lot about this virus.
The main component of a virus is its genetic code. Already, scientists have identified sections of SARS-CoV-2 code that helps the virus hijack cells to produce even more of the virus. Some of the code helps create bubbles for new virus parts to form in. They’ve even found sections that help the virus better replicate (or reproduce), like using a cookie cutter rather than cutting out a rough shape in cookie dough.
Learning more about this virus will help scientists find ways to treat the disease, and aid in developing vaccines to prevent infections in the first place.
If you’ve studied high school biology, you might have noticed something a bit strange about the letters in the genetic code of SARS-CoV-2.
The genetic material in a coronavirus is stored in RNA. This chemical has four bases, usually written g, u, a and c. However, genetic sequences on GenBank use the DNA letters: a, c, g and t.
There’s a good reason why scientists are using DNA bases instead of RNA bases. In order to read RNA, scientists can use a chemical process called reverse transcriptase to rewrite the code in DNA. They then can use sequencing machines that only read DNA to decode the information of the viral RNA.
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4 June, 2020 at 4:50 pm
Why use wire when elastic would work well and be easier?
4 June, 2020 at 4:56 pm
Hi Lynette,
Yup, you can use elastic, and string would work too!
We used wire because it means you have a beginning and an end to your sequence, rather than a loop. Plus, we think it looks really cool!
For a different way of present in the sequence, you could adapt this necklace activity we wrote several years beck:
https://blog.doublehelix.csiro.au/make-a-pi-necklace/
16 November, 2021 at 7:31 am
Hi! I want to do this activity for the spike protein of the coronavirus. I went to the website you linked and tried downloading “datasets” of proteins but the downloaded files were *.md and I was not able to open them. Can you help me find the spike protein sequence? Thanks for your help.
16 November, 2021 at 9:40 am
Hi Amy,
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the webpage I linked to has changed over time.
How about this link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NC_045512
scroll a bit down to get the atgc sequence