Central Dogma Expanded Flashcards
True/False: We can assume genetic information only travels in one direction
FALSE
What is Reverse Transcription?
Information flows backwards from RNA to DNA.
What is the enzyme that facilitates reverse transcription?
Reverse transcriptase
What does the enzyme Reverse Transcriptase do?
This enzyme generates complementary DNA (or cDNA) from an RNA template.
Where does a retrovirus replicate?
In the host genome.
Describe the functioning of a Retrovirus.
This virus uses the enzyme reverse transcriptase to transcribe their RNA genomes back into the host DNA which is integrated into a replicated genome.
What is an example of a retrovirus?
HIV
Where does an RNA virus impact the Central Dogma?
Translation
Describe the goal of an RNA virus.
An RNA virus has their genetic information stored as RNA. As such when a host is infected their replication machinery treats this viral RNA as the hosts own mRNA and the virus is directly translated into a protein.
What are three examples of an RNA virus?
CORONAVIRUS (SARS), INFLUENZA (the flu), and PARAMYXOVIRUS (measles)
How else would the Central Dogma not be negated but perhaps not follow the linear path of DNA -> RNA-> Protein?
Non-coding RNA (or ncRNA).
What is the functioning of an ncRNA?
ncRNA’s skip being translated into proteins and directly perform functioning within a cell as an RNA molecule.
What are two examples of ncRNA?
Transfer RNA (tRNA) and Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
What would be an adjacent process to the central dogma that expands on this basic theory?
Epigenetics
Describe the field of Epigenetics.
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene activity that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence. Meaning: same DNA, a different expression of the phenotype.
