CMB self-study Flashcards
Prokaryotes vs Eukaryotes
Prokaryotes: no membrane enclosed organelles, chromatin in nucleoid Eukaryotes: membrane bound organelles and vesicles, nuclear membrane
Purines
Adenine (A) Guanine (G)
Pyrimidines
Cytosine (C) Thymine (T) in DNA only Uracil in RNA only
Nucleotide bonding
A bonds with T or U (2 bonds) and C bonds with G (3 bonds)
Nucleosides
Purines and pyrimidine bases + pentose (deoxyribose or ribose)
Nucleotides
Phosphorylated nucleosides (5’ -OH of ribose or deoxyribose is phosphorylated)
Oglionucleotides
Short polymers of nucleotides (up to 30)
Role of Mg2+ and other cations
Shield phosphate groups from electrostatic intrastrand repulsion (balance the negative charges)
Why is circular DNA an advantage?
May provide protection from degredation by exonucleases
Active site
Includes substrate-binding site and catalytic site
Substrate-binding site
Determines specificity
Catalytic site
Contains catalytic residues which act on the substrate
-ase usually means
enzyme
B-DNA
Conformation primarily found in cells
A-DNA
Form taken by DNA-RNA hybrid during transcription
Z-DNA
Occurs within DNA sequences that control gene transcription
Causes of denaturation
Extreme pH, extreme ionic strength, high temp
Type I isomerases
Break only one DNA strand and allow it to rotate about the other to relieve supercoil. Also reseal (ligate) break
Type II isomerases
Act as ATPases-Using ATP, break both DNA strands, relax supercoil, reseal DNA
What are gyrases?
Topoisomerases which relieve supercoiling from unwinding of DNA. Prevent supercoiling that would be induced by unwinding DNA in DNA synthesis
Nalidixic acid
Antibiotic used for antibotic resistant UTIs. Inhibit gyrases and interferes with breaking and rejoining of DNA
Novobiocin
Antibiotic which blocks the binding of ATP (which blocks type II isomerases)
Cruciforms
Regions of DNA which interchain hydrogen bonds are broken and intrachain bonds form. Function in the control of replication and transcription
Triplex DNA functions and bonding
Triple stranded DNA. Usually in regions with string of purine bases. Functions in transcription control, initiation and termination of replication by enhancing stability of chromosome ends called telomeres. Forms hydrogen bonds with major groove of B-DNA with Hoogsteen pairing.
What is triple-stranded DNA associated with?
Hereditary persistance of fetal hemoglobin. Mutation prevents the triple stranded DNA from forming and fetal hemoglobin to continues to be transcribed
Hoogsteen pairing
Occurs on different faces of DNA than Watson and Crick pairing
Quadruplex DNA
Forms in immunoglobin genes that undergo recombination. Responsible for antibody diversity. Also present at the telomeres.
Histones (types, function)
Eight proteins (2 each of H2A, H2B, H3, H4) combine to form a histone disk octamer around which DNA supercoils. Interact with highly acidic phosphate residues of DNA in minor groove. H1 is not part of the octamer and functions to stabilize the DNA around the octamer. Histone genes have NO INTRONS.
Nucleosomes
1 _ turns of DNA with the histone disk but no H1
Chromatosomes
2 full turns of DNA with the histone disk + H1
Linker DNA
Between nucleosomes
Nucleofilament
Linear arrays of nucleosomes and chromatosomes
Heterochromatin vs Euchromatin
Heterochromatin is tightly packed and euchromatin is loose-more accessible and transcriptionally active
What do prokaryotes have instead of histones?
HU proteins
Prokaryote chromasome structure
One circular double stranded supercoil chromasome
Nucleoids
Bacterial chromosomes are compacted into ________ by interaction with HU proteins, cations, polyamines, RNA, and other nonhistone proteins
Palindrome
Each DNA strand is self-complimentary within the inverted region that contains the symmetry elements
Mirror repeat
Identical base pairs equidistant from center of symmetry within DNA segments
Direct repeat
Particular sequence repeated
Size of human genome
3.5x109 bp
Function of primer
Provides free -OH group to which nucleotides can be added
What is released as nucleotides are added to growing DNA strand?
Pyrophosphate (PPi) is released whenever phosphodiester bonds are formed
Which end of the strand are nucleotides added to?
3’ end
How are primers removed?
Exonuclease activity removes primer nucleotides in 5’ to 3’ direction
Helicases
Unwind the DNA strands to allow them to separate
Single-stranded binding proteins (SSB)
Bind to DNA to keep the two strands from annealing
Types of prokaryotic DNA polymerases and functions
3 types: Pol I, Pol II, Pol III. All have 3’–>5’ exonuclease proofreading activity. Pol I (intermediate processivity) synthesizes lagging strand and only one capable of primer removal (5’–>3’ exonuclease activity). Pol II (low processivity) involved in DNA repair. Pol III (high processivity) synthesizes leading strand.
Sliding clamp
Donut shaped protein complex which encircles DNA strands. Prevents Pol III from detaching from the template until replication complete. Reason why Pol III has high processivity.
Processivity
Ability of the enzyme to remain on its substrate during synthesis
Replisome complex
Includes primosome, SSB proteins, Pol I and Pol III, other molecules needed for DNA replication
Primosome
Primases, ligases, helicases, and other proteins that bind to the origin of replication and are necessary for synthesizing the primer
Replicons
DNA segments between the origins of replication
Differences between prokaryote and eukaryote DNA synthesis
Eukaryotic DNA is much larger, packed into chromatin, and have lower rates of replication fork movement than in prokaryotes