Chapter 14 Flashcards
- Understand how the 20th century can be divided into “quarters” with each quarter leading to an important breakthrough in our understanding of genetics. What happened in 1900? What happened in the middle of the century? What happened in 2000?
1900 - Mendel rediscovered, figuring out that gene were on chromosome.
1950 - race to solve structure of DNA. Watson and Crick.
2000 - sequenced human genome
Why were proteins initially believed to be the “genetic determinants”? What was known about DNA prior to 1900?
by the 1940s scientists knew that chromosomes carried hereditary material and consisted of DNA and protein. Most researchers thought protein was the genetic material because; proteins were macromolecules with great heterogeneity and functional specificity. Little was known about nucleic acids. The physical and chemical properties of DNA seemed too uniform to account for the multitude of inherited traits.
Not much about the DNA was known prior to 1900.
Know the contributions of the following people in the identification of DNA as the material responsible for the transmission of genetic information and be able to describe and analyze the experiment that led to their contribution
- Frederick Griffith
“Transforming principle” – allowed change of nonvirulent R strain(benign) bacteria into virulent S strain bacteria.
Know the contributions of the following people in the identification of DNA as the material responsible for the transmission of genetic information and be able to describe and analyze the experiment that led to their contribution:
- Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty
Their experiment showed that DNA is the informational component transferred during transformation.
Know the contributions of the following people in the identification of DNA as the material responsible for the transmission of genetic information and be able to describe and analyze the experiment that led to their contribution:
- Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase
Hershey and Chase experiment using bacteriophage. Radiolabeled S35(labeling protein) and P32(DNA)
- Showed DNA contains genetic material.
Transformation?
In Avery, Macleod, McCarthy, transformation occurred from R strain→S strain & found DNA was the informational component transferred during transformation
Bacteriophage?
virus that infects bacteria
What were Erwin Chargoff’s contributions to understanding DNA? What did Chargoff’s rules state?
- studying DNA from a chemical level
- reported that DNA composition varies from one species to the next but no matter what species he found the
%A ≈ %T & %G ≈ %C. - Chargoff’s rules: %A roughly equal to % T, %G roughly equal to %C
Discuss the contributions of the following individuals in terms of determining the structure of DNA.
- Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins
- Francis Crick and James Watson
Franklin - X ray diffraction photograph of DNA suggesting DNA is double helix structure. Suggested the diameter of DNA molecule, and suggested that phosphates were on the backbone.
Watson and Crick took Franklin’s data and created DNA model
- Describe the double helical structure of DNA. How did Franklin’s X-ray crystallographic images contribute to our understanding of the physical structure of DNA? What insights did her work give Watson and Crick regarding the structure of DNA? How did the understanding of the structure of DNA explain Chargoff’s rules?
- Sugar phosphate backbone
- Double helix that has anti parallel strand.
Franklins X-ray image
Double helical structure of DNA: (what Watson & Crick published)
1- DNA is a double helix (2 DNA strands in an anti-parallel orientation)
2- 2 strands held together by H-bonding that’s very specific between A-T & G-C.
3- Sugar-phosphate backbone is on the outside with the nitrogenous bases pointing inward to base pair with each other
4- Purine(2 ring structure. A & G) always base paired with a pyrimidine(one ring structure C&T) making diameter perfect (2nm)
5- 2 strands are complementary to one another, not identical
a. major groove
b. minor groove
The major groove occurs where the backbones are far apart, the minor groove occurs where they are close together.
c. Antiparallel
One strand 3’ to 5’ and other strand 5’ to 3’
d. complementary strands of DNA
two complementary strands in DNA where nucleotides base pairs with complementary base pairing.
e. 3’ end
f. 5’ end
Carbon 3, attached to -OH (hydroxyl) group
Carbon 5, attached to phosphate
g. base-pairing
hydrogen bond between Purines (A&G) and Pyrimidines (T&C)
How did Watson and Crick’s model of the double stranded DNA molecule provide a clue for how genetic information is copied in the cell?
realized that these pairing rules meant that either strand contained all the information necessary to make a new copy of the entire molecule, and that the aperiodic order of bases might provide a “genetic code”.