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Death Cap Mushroom Research Paper

172 Words1 Pages
What makes the death cap mushroom poisonous is the inhibition of the enzyme RNA polymerase. It is the toxin alpha amanitin which is an amatoxin present in the mushroom and binds to RNA polymerase inhibiting so that it cannot make new mRNA. mRNA normally binds to DNA to make a copy. It then transcribes to mRNA and when the DNA copy has been made, the mRNA goes on to translation. In translation, ribosomes attach to the DNA to make a complete ribosome and tRNA line up with the complete ribosome to direct which amino acid or protein will be made. So, if the RNA polymerase is inhibited by the alpha amanitin, then the mRNA and ribosomes do not know what proteins to make, and what can be affected are chemical enzymes, Na/ K pump, and collagen just
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