A man feels a shooting pain in his arm, then a thundering in his chest.  Realizing that he is in the throes of a heart attack, he reaches for his self-injector of tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) and quickly injects himself.  The tPA begins to break apart the blood clots that are blocking his heart’s circulation.  This lifesaving protein is naturally found in the human body in tiny amounts.  The man’s tPA drug, although identical to his own, was manufactured in bacteria. a. How is it possible for bacteria to express protein that was coded for by a human gene? b. Due to certain advances in biotechnology, it became much cheaper to produce tPA.  What DNA technology made it possible to produce large quantities of this protein in bacterial cells?

Human Heredity: Principles and Issues (MindTap Course List)
11th Edition
ISBN:9781305251052
Author:Michael Cummings
Publisher:Michael Cummings
Chapter17: Genes And The Immune System
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A man feels a shooting pain in his arm, then a thundering in his chest.  Realizing that he is in the throes of a heart attack, he reaches for his self-injector of tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) and quickly injects himself.  The tPA begins to break apart the blood clots that are blocking his heart’s circulation.  This lifesaving protein is naturally found in the human body in tiny amounts.  The man’s tPA drug, although identical to his own, was manufactured in bacteria.

a. How is it possible for bacteria to express protein that was coded for by a human gene?

b. Due to certain advances in biotechnology, it became much cheaper to produce tPA.  What DNA technology made it possible to produce large quantities of this protein in bacterial cells?

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