Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

MCAT > Biology > Flashcards

Biology Flashcards

1
Q

acidic amino acids

A

aspartate and glutamate

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

basic amino acids

A

lysine, arginine, and histidine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

polar amino acids

A

serine, threonine, tyrosine, asparagine, and glutamine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

hydrophobic vs. hydrophilic amino acids

A

the acidic/basic/polar amino acids are hydrophilic, all others are hydrophobic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

cysteine and cystine

A

cystine is formed when cysteine is oxidized to form a disulfide bridge

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

peptide bone formation

A

reaction of carboxylic group with amino group with a loss of water

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

hydrolysis of protein

A

proteolysis, breaking of peptide chain using water

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

amino acid important in alpha helix

A

proline

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

solvation layer

A

shell around protein that interacts with solvent (water)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

isoelectric point

A

the point at which a molecule has no net charge, for an amino acid this occurs at the mean of the pKa’s

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

isoelectric focusing

A

an amino acid will be very positive at very low pH and will migrate towards the isoelectric point, it will be negative at high pH and migrate towards isoelectric point

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

how enzymes work

A

lower activation energy by stabilizing the transition state

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

types of enzymes

A

hydrolyase - break chemical bonds with water
isomerase - moves bonds around
ligase - joins together
lyase - breaks bonds without water or oxidation
kinase - phophorylates from another molecule
oxidoreductase - redox
polymerase - addition of many molecules
phosphatase - removes phosphate
phosphorylase - transfers phosphate from inorganic
protease - breaks protein with hydrolysis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

active site model

A

lock and key - substrate and active site are perfecty complementary

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

induced fit model

A

substrate and enzyme differ slightly and binding introduces conformation change in enzyme

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

cofactor vs. coenzyme

A

same but a coenzyme is organic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

cooperativity

A

like sigmoidal hemoglobin curve, binding of additional substrates

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

competitive inhbitor

A

same Vmax, larger Km

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

non-competitive inhibitor

A

smaller Vmax, same Km

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

uncompetitive inhibitor

A

binds to enzyme substrate complex, lower Vmax and Km

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

absolute configuration at the alpha position

A

amino acids in humans are L, sugars are D

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

proline special

A

kinks the chain, so it never appears in alpha helix

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

semiconservative replication

A

one strand is used as a template and the other has new bases added to it

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

euchromatin vs hetereochromatin

A

hetero - more dense, less transcribed genes

eu- less dense, more transcribed genes

25
Q

topoisomerase

A

prevents supercoiling of DNA downstream from helicase

26
Q

primase

A

adds an RNA primer to the growing strand

27
Q

DNA pol 1 and 3

A

both present in prokaryotes
DNA pol 1 - adds nucleotides at RNA primer 5’ to 3’, also has exonuclease capabilities
DNA pol 3 - fast and accurate, does most of transcription, also has proofreading

28
Q

differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic replication

A

eukaryotic - several replication bubbles

prokaryotic - one site of replication, circular chromosome

29
Q

telomerase

A

adds telomeres to ends of chromosomes, usually only present in germ line, stem cells or white blood cells, also tumor cells

30
Q

missense mutation

A

one AA replaced with another

31
Q

loss of heterozygosity

A

loss of one allele result in hemizygocity, if other gene if affected, can lead to disease

32
Q

haploinsufficiency

A

one good gene is not enough for normal funciton

33
Q

methylation to distinguish strands

A

used in prokaryotes, parental is labeled with methylation, daughter strand is not, is able to distinguish the difference, eukaryotes differentiate using free 3’ end or Okazaki fragments

34
Q

difference between DNA and RNA

A

DNA - no 2’ hydorxyl group, less reactive, more stable

35
Q

monocistronic vs polycistronic

A

eukaryotes are mono, prokaryotes are poly, mono means one strand encodes for one gene, encodes for one protein

36
Q

heterogeneous nuclear RNA

A

made in the nucleus, immature or presursor to mRNA

37
Q

tRNA

A

has anticodon that binds to mRNA and adds to growing polypeptide chain

38
Q

rRNA

A

major component of ribosome, catalytic RNAs are called ribozymes

39
Q

fidelity of RNA/DNA

A

RNA pol makes more mistakes, no editing capabilities

40
Q

spliceosome

A

cuts out the introns and keeps exons, only present in eukaryotes

41
Q

RNA pol 1,2,3

A

1 - rRNA
2 - hnRNA
3 - tRNA

in eukaryotes

42
Q

relationship between tRNA and amino acids

A

each tRNA corresponds to one amino acid but each amino acid may have many tRNAs

43
Q

wobble hypothesis

A

third amino acid of anticodon has some flexibility, allows for smaller number of tRNAs to be possible

44
Q

aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

A

combines tRNA and amino acid, requires 2 ATP, allows for specific AA and tRNA to bind and activates AA for growing polypeptide chain

45
Q

subunits of ribosomes

A

50/30 in pro, 5.8/5/40/60 in eu

46
Q

degenerate code

A

there are repeats in the code for amino acids

47
Q

initiation and stop codons

A

initiation - AUG

stop - UAA, UAG, UGA

48
Q

snRNPs

A

involved in spliceosome in eukaryotes, occurs in the nucleus, removes the introns, also associated with snRNAs

49
Q

chaperones

A

helps proteins fold into their correct shape

50
Q

locus

A

where a gene is located on a chromosome

51
Q

alleles

A

a copy of a gene, one allele on each homologous chromosome

52
Q

incomplete dominance

A

neither dominant nor recessive, instead of white and red you have pink

53
Q

codominance

A

both alleles are expressed, but not blended, like blood type

54
Q

synaptonemal complex

A

forms in prophase I, connects the two homologous chromosomes

55
Q

natural selection, phenotypes and genotypes

A

natural selection only acts on phenotypes, not genotypes

56
Q

differential reproduction

A

individuals that reproduce more will be selected for, individuals who reproduce less will be selected against

57
Q

linkages in glycogen

A

alpha 1,4 linkages and alpha 1,6 at branch points

58
Q

nucleolus

A

ribosome factory in the nucleus and site of transcription

59
Q

localization sequence vs signal sequence

A

localization = nucleus, mitochondria and peroxisomes

signal sequence = secreted, plasma membrane, lysosome, ER, golgi

MCAT (5 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions