Chapter 4: The Genetic Code, Mutations, and Translation Flashcards
How many codons are there total?
64 codons
How many codons code for amino acids?
61 codons
What are the three stop codons?
UAA (u are away, umbrella apple apple)
UGA (u go away, umbrella gold apple)
UAG ( u are gone, umbrella, apple gold)
What is the start codon and what does it code for?
AUG methionine (Met) in eukaryotes
fMet) formyl group in prokaryotes
What is a mutation?
any permanent, heritable change in the DNA base sequence of an organism
What is a transition?
a point mutation that replaces a purine-pyrimidine base pair with a different purine-pyrimidine base pair
i.e A-T base pair becomes a G-C base pair
What is a transversion?
a point mutation that replaces a purine-pyrimidine base pair with a pyrimidine purine base pair
i.e A-T base pair becomes a T-A or a C-G base pair
What is a trinucleotide repeat expansion? What is a common feature of these types of abnormalities?
expansions in coding regions cause protein product to be longer than normal and unstable
disease often show anticipation in pedigree
What is an example of a large segment deletion?
a-thalassemia is a well-known genetic disease in which unequal crossover has deleted one or more a-globin genes from chromsome 16
another example is cri -du-chat
What are some effects on the cellular level of mutations of splice sites?
- deletion of nucleotides from the adjacent exon
- leave nucleotides of the intron in the processed mRNA
- Use the next normal upstream or downstream splice site, deleting an exon from the processed mRNA
List examples of conditions that are caused by mutations in splice sites?
B-thalassemia, Gaucher disease, and Tay-Sachs
What is anticipation?
Disease in which the severity for the disease increases while the age of onset decreases with successive generations
Name some translation repeat disorders? Another name for translation repeat disorders?
Some polyglutamine disorders would be:
Huntington disease: (CAG)n
Spinobulbar muscular atrophy (CAG)n
What are some untranslated repeat disorders?
Fragile X syndrome (CGG)n
Myotonic dystrophy (CTG) n
Friedreich’s ataxia (GAA) n
What are some signs of Huntington disease?
mood disturbance, impaired memory, and hyperreflexia are often the first signs, followed by abnormal gait, chorea (loss of motor control), dystonia, dementia, and dysphagia
Before an amino acid can be transferred to the 3’ end of the tRNA what enzyme must work on the amino acid?
aminoacyl tRNA synthetase must transfer the activated amino acid to the 3’ end of the correct tRNA and two high- energy bonds from ATP are required.
In prokaryotes, how does initiation of translation occur?
The small ribosomal subunit binds to the mRNA. In prokaryotes, the 16S rRNA of the small subunit binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence in the 5’ untranslated region of the mRNA.
In eukaryotes, how does initiation of translation occur?
the small subunit binds to the 5’ cap structure and slides down the message to the first AUG
Describe the P site of the ribosome.
Peptidyl site is the site on the ribsome where fMet-tRNAi initially binds.
P site becomes binding site for growing peptide chain
Describe A site of the ribosome. Also what is another name for this site?
aminoacyl site (A site) binds each new incoming tRNA molecule carrying an activated amino acid