DNA and Cancer Flashcards
Which growth factor receptor does masitinib target?
c-Kit
Which cancers are common in golden retrievers and rottweilers?
Lymphoma and osteosarcoma
What is astrocytoma a cancer of?
Glial cells in brain
What are the three cell extrinsic hallmarks of cancer?
Angiogenesis, metatatic potential, evasion of immune destruction
How do cancer cells evade immune destruction?
Produces cytokines to dampen immune response
What are the six cell intrinsic hallmarks of cancer?
Growth signal autonomy, resistance to inhibitory growth signals, unlimited replicated capacity, reprogrammed cell metabolism, resistance to apoptosis, genetic instability
Why do cancer cells have growth signal autonomy?
Cell can’t recognise them so not dependent on them
What is Warburg Metabolism?
Where tumour cells use lots of glucose, use it to produce lactate instead of oxy phos and use the remaining carbon for raw materials.
What are the angiogenic activators?
VEGF and PDGF
What are the angiogenic inhibitors?
Angiostatin and endostatin
What is a common metastasis site?
The perivascular cuff
What does Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor do?
Binds receptors on endothelial cells lining blood vessels, stimulates them to secrete matrix metallo-proteinases to degrade extracellular matrix and allow tissue remodelling so the activated endothelial cells mirgate towards the tumour
Where is platelet-derived growth factor secreted from and what does it do?
From activated endothelial cells, it is a chemoattractant for smooth muscle cells
What drug is an antibody for VEGF and what are its side effects?
Avastin, causes aneurysms and perforations
How does the primary tumour produce angiostatin and what are its effects on the secondary tumours?
By cleavage of plasminogen, stops angiogenesis and metastasis
Which part of the DNA do alkylating agents and aromatic amines react with and what does this form?
Nucelphilic sites on purine and pyrimidine rings, forms DNA adduct (covalent bond with carcinogen)
What is the Ames test?
Measures ability of chemical to mutate the Salmonella genome - grow bacteria that can’t synthesize His in the absence of His and only mutated colonies will grow
What are the five types of DNA repair?
One-step repair, nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair, recombination repair (HR or NHEJ) or mismatch repair
Which enzyme does one step repair use?
Alkyltransferases to repair damage from alkylating agents
What kind of defect does nucleotide excision repair detect?
Helix-distorting lesions
What are some epigenetic changes which may cause cancer?
Methylation of tumour suppressor transcriptional promoter sequences, post-translational modification changing stability or activity, non-coding microRNAs inhibiting translation of proteins involved in cancer
What are the effects of increased microRNA in a tumour and in normal tissue?
In tumour is acting as oncogene (inhibiting suppressor), if in normal tissue it’s acting as tumour suppressor (inhibiting oncogene)
Which part of the DNA does ionisation affect?
The base
What does deamination of cytosine produce?
Thymine
What does the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway produce?
Nucleic acids
What two metals encourage benzene to bind to DNA?
Cobalt and nickel
What does plasminogen cleavage produce?
Plasminogen >Plasmin > Angiostatin
What do macrophages secrete?
Growth factors
What is sis?
A growth factor
What is erbB?
A growth factor receptor
What is the point of the strep experiment?
To show that DNA (not protein or lipid) in the “transforming principle” transferring pathogenic properties
What’s the process of the strep experiment?
S strain is pathogenic because it has a smooth coat to protect it from the immune system. Fraction the S cells into components, test which transforms R to S.
What’s the point of the blender experiment?
To show that genetic material used by viruses is DNA
What’s a bacteriophage?
A virus which infects bacteria
What’s the process of the blender experiment?
Radioactively label either the DNA or the proteins of the virus and add them to the bacteria they infect. Use a blender to separate bacteria and viruses and then centrifuge. Look where the radioactivity goes - protein stays within the phage, DNA moves to the bacteria
Which atoms are labelled in the blender experiment?
32P in the DNA, 35S in the methionine of the proteins
What are the two layers in the test tube called after centrifuging in the blender experiment?
The pellet at the bottom (bacteria) and the supernatant (the phage)
What’s the structure of the backbone in terms of sugar and phosphates?
Alternates sugar and phosphate
What does the base attach to?
The sugar
Which carbon of the sugar do the base and the phosphate attach to?
Sugar is C1, phospahte is C5.
What is at the 5’ end and what is at the 3’ end?
Phosphate at 5’, OH at 3’
What’s the bond called in DNA between the carbons?
Phosphodiester
Base + ribose = ?
Nucleoside
Nucleoside + phosphate = ?
Nucleotide
How were Chargaff’s rules worked out?
Heat to break phosphodiester bond, use phosphodiesterase to get nucleotides, use chromatography and measure intensity of each band
Why can RNA form a double helix or fold on itself?
2’ hydroxyl
What are the three forms of the double helix?
B (normal), A (RNA double helix) and Z (left handed)
What does the A form of the double helix look like?
Wider, shallower minor groove
What are some characteristics of the DNA double helix?
Right-handed, phosphates repel each other, planes of bases perpendicular to vertical axis, one turn is 10.5 base pairs, rises 34A per turn
What area of the cell are chromosomes found in?
Chromosome territories
What is a nucleosome core particle?
Loop of DNA wrapped around a histone
Which protein can wrap DNA around proteins?
Integration host factor
Which proteins move nucleosomes? What does this affect?
Remodelling proteins using ATP, affects availability for transcription factors
What is supercoiling?
Over/underwinding of a strand which introduces tension so wraps around itself
What do topoisomerases do?
Change degree of supercoiling by cleaning and rejoining DNA strands
What is a nucleoid?
A rosette of DNA made by domains of independent supercoiling
Which are the four subunits found in a histone octamer? Which subunit packs the nucleosomes together?
H2A, H2B, H3 and H4. H1 packs together.
Which amino acid is positively charged in histones?
Lysine
Does methylation or acetylation of histones repress or acetylate transcription?
Methylation represses, acetylation in promoter regions
What is conservative replication?
Would reform original strand?
What is dispersive replication?
Produces strands with fragments of parent and daughter DNA
What is steric exclusion?
Where replicated helicases form hexameric rings where one strand is threaded through and the other is peeled off
What are some properties of the origin of replication (OriC)?
AT-rich, one per chromosome, has 5 DnaA boxes
What does DnaA do?
Bind, interact and partially melt the double helix, act as loading site for DnaB
What does DnaB do?
It’s a helicase which unwinds the double-stranded DNA
What does DnaC do?
Brings the DnaB
What does DnaG do?
It’s a primase which makes a short RNA primase
Which DNA polymerase replicates the leading and lagging strand in prokaryotes?
DNA pol III
Which DNA polymerase in prokaryotes has 5’-3’ exonuclease activity to remove the RNA primer?
DNA pol I
Which DNA polymerase has a B clamp dimer and what does this do?
DNA pol III, holds it onto template so it’s capable of progressive synthesis
Which complex loads the B clamp dimer?
Gamma complex
What is a holoenzyme complex?
In bacterial DNA replication leading and lagging strand synthesis is coupled instead of going in opposite directions
What is the trombone model?
Lagging strand template is primed but bent back around to form a loop which is periodically released in bacterial DNA replication
What are type I topoisomerases for?
Nick one strand, pass it around the other, reseal. Removes supercoils in front of the replication fork
What are type II topoisomerases for?
Cuts both strands if two replication forks collide
Why do topoisomerases use covalent bonds with the DNA?
Preserves bond energy, ensures DNA molecules aren’t released
In eukaryotes, what recognises the origins of replication?
Origin recognition complex (ORC)
What does ORC recruit and what does it need to do this?
MCM helicase, needs Cdc6 and Cdt1
What do eukaryotes use instead of SSB?
RPA
Which primase is used in eukaryotes?
PriL, PriS, B subunit, DNA pol alpha complex
Which DNA polymerase is used in eukaryotes?
DNA pol alpha, beta, E
What is the sliding clamp in eukaryotes?
PCNA
What is the clamp loader in eukaryotes?
RFC
What co-ordinates primer removal in eukaryotes?
Coordinated by PCNA
What does RNaseH do in eukaryotes?
Removes the RNA primer base paired to the DNA
What does Flap Endonuclease Fen1 do in eukaryotes?
Removes the flap that DNA creates when it displaces the primer
How is the primer removed in eukaryotes?
Primer removed by RNaseH, DNA polymerase displaces it creating a flap which is removed by flap endonuclease Fen1
What is the aim of the genome-wide association study?
Identify alleles relating to a disease
Which chromosome doesn’t have crossing over?
Y
What are some characteristics of euchromatin?
Loosely packed, at chromosome arms, gene rich, replicated in S phase, undergoes recombination, transcribed
What are some characteristics of heterochromatin?
Densely packed, at centromeres and telomeres, gene-poor, replicated late S phase, repetetive, no recombination, not transcribed
What is a telocentric chromosome?
Centromere is at the end of each chromosome arm
Why are telomeres needed?
Because lagging strand either wouldn’t be replicated or would be left with DNA-RNA duplex causing loss of genetic information
What’s the telomere sequence in humans?
TTAGGG
What is the structure of telomerase?
Has protein and RNA component, is a self-templating reverse transcriptase
What are T and D loops?
Found in telomeres, T loops are where unpaired end folds back and closes off, D loop is where one strand is displaced so the T loop can bind
Which nucleotides did Sanger use for chain termination?
Dideoxynucleotides (ddNTPs) which terminates chain as no 3’OH group
In euchromatin which repeats are not derived from transposons?
Simple repeats eg CACACACA and segmental duplications
In euchromatin which repeats are derived from transposons?
Transposon-derived repeats and inactive copies of partially retrotransposed cellular genes
What are the two types of mobile genetic elements?
Transposons via transposase or retrotransposons which go DNA>RNA>DNA then inserted back
What are long/short interspersed nuclear elements, retrovirus-like elements and DNA transposon fossils types of?
Mobile genetic elements
What is FISH used to look at?
Chromosomal rearrangements and gene copy numbers in cancer cells
What is the bacterial restriction-modification system?
Methylate their own DNA at adenine residues using DNA adenine methyltransferases which makes it different to viral DNA
Where do type II restriction endonucleases cut?
At palindromic sequences
What are the two types of type II restriction endonucleases?
EcoRV produces blunt ends, EcoRI produces sticky ends
Which dye is used when looking at DNA?
Ethidium bromide which intercalates into the DNA and fluoresces orange under UV light
Which “blots” are for what?
Southern for DNA, Northern for RNA, Western for protein
How do you purify plasmids from bacterial genomic DNA?
Alkaline lysis
What are the temperatures for melting, annealing and extension of DNA?
90, 55-60 and 72
What do you need for PCR?
Oligonucleotide primers, template DNA, dNTPs, buffer and Taq polymerase
What are the three endogenous causes of DNA legions?
ROS, reactive chemicals (S-adenosylmethionine) and chemical instability (deamination/depurination)
What are the four types of DNA damage?
Transition, transversion, alteration to backbone or loss of covalent identity of backbone
What is a transition and what is a transversion?
Transition is purine>purine and transversion is purine>pyrimidine
What does UV light cause?
Thymidine dimers through a cyclobutyl ring
Which enzymes converts a thymidine dimer back?
DNA photolyase
What does 8oxoG cause and which enzyme fixes it?
GC>TA transversion, removed by DNA glycosylase
Which chromosome is the Huntingtin gene on?
4
Which codon expansion causes Huntington’s diseases and what does it code for?
CAG for glutamine
How do the hairpins cause triplet expansion is Huntington’s disease?
Replication machinery may accidentally expands it or repair machinery may expand it while trying to fix it, could be slipped-strand intermediates if one strand has more repeats than the other, CNG (C-nucleotide-G) departs from normal B form DNA
Which enzymes converts the superoxide anion to peroxide?
Superoxide dismutase
What is the reaction called which converts peroxide and Fe2+ to OH radical, OH- and Fe3+?
Fenton
What can cause C>U?
Can be spontaneous, treatment with nitrites or via oxidative conversion
How is C>U transversion fixed?
Uracil DNA glycosylase recognises, flips and cleaves the glycosidic bond. A nucelease cleaves the backbone at the abasic site, acts as priming site for DNA pol I or b, puts C back opposite templated G
What does DAM methyltransferase do?
Methylates A in GATC sequence in bacteria to protect from restriction endonucleases
What does DNA methyltransferase do?
Methylates C in eukaryotes
In which areas is methylation common?
CpG islands
What does methylation do in CpG islands?
Switch off gene expression, responsible for genomic imprinting
How is Prader-Willi syndrome caused?
Paternal is deleted, maternal is silenced
How are thymidine dimers repaired?
Detected, DNA around lesion unwound, single-stranded gap produced, polymerase fills it in, ligase sticks it
What do mutations in NER cause?
Xeroderma pigmentosum
Which cell phases is NHEJ important in?
G1 and G0
What is it called when the ends are lost during NHEJ?
synapsis
How can bacteria tell which end is the template?
DNA is usually methylated but is only hemimethylated when first produced
What is the process of DNA mismatch repair?
Strand flanking error is excised and polymerase fills it in
What cancer does mutations in DNA mismatch repair cause?
Colorectal cancer
What does homologous recombination use as a template?
The other copy of the chromosome
Which enzymes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes scan the genome for the identical double-stranded sequence?
RecA (prok) or RAD51 (euk)
Which complex slides Holliday junctions in bacteria?
RuvAB
What’s the process of homologous recombination?
3’ tail created, D loop forms in template chromosome, ends join
Which protein does BRCA2 control activity of?
HR protein Rad51
What does translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 cause?
Chronic myelogenous leukaemia
Which enzymes add extra nucelotides to increase variation in antibodies?
Terminal transferase
What happens to pyrophosphates released during RNA synthesis?
Hydrolysed to phosphate via pyrophosphatase
Why is prokaryote RNA polymerase so error prone?
No 3’-5’ exonuclease or correction mechanisms
What’s the difference between the core enzymes and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase?
Holoenzyme has sigma subunit as well as alpha2, beta and beta’
What does the sigma subunit do?
Holds machinery onto DNA, different one for different promoters, suppresses random binding
Why are promoter sequences asymmetric?
So RNA polymerase will only bind in one direction
How is synthesis initiated in prokaryotes?
Holoenzyme binds to promoter, still closed complex, then the two DNA strands open to form open complex, correct NTP is selected and incorporated and the pyrophosphate is lost, moves on by one nucleotide, sigma lost after 6-8 nucleotides to initiate synthesis of another chain
What are the promoters in prokaryotes?
-35 and -10 (Pribnow box)
What is an operon?
A promoter controlling a number of genes
What is a polycistronic transcript?
mRNA which encodes several polypeptides
Why does a run of 6U terminate synthesis?
Doesn’t bind to DNA so it falls off
How do sigma factors respond to environmental conditions?
Recognise promoters of genes where transcription is induced due to an environmental condition eg. heat shock
What is rho independent termination?
Terminates due to GC hairpin and 6U in RNA where palindrome forms stable, GC-rich hairpin so RNA polymerase pauses and then dissociates
What is rho dependent termination?
Have hairpin but no U tract, preceded by high Cs, rho (a helicase) binds to the C rich RNA and unwinds the DNA-RNA duplex while it’s paused
How does CAP affect RNA polymerase activity?
Stabilises it (a positive regulator)
What induces synthesis of B-galactosidase?
B-galactosides
How does alpha-amanitin work?
Interacts with RNA pol II and blocks transcription
How does Actinomycin D block RNA synthesis?
Binds to dsDNA by intercalating between neighbouring GC pairs, stops DNA and RNA polymerase accessing it
How does rifamycin work?
An antibiotic - binds the B subunit of RNA polymerase and doesn’t affect eukaryotes, blocks chain elongation
What does microRNA do?
Regulates mRNA
Where is the TAT box and which RNA pol does it promote?
-25
Why does RNA pol II need general transcription factors?
Will use either DNA strand
What are the general transcription factors of RNA pol II?
TFIIA TFIIB TFIID TFIIE TFIIF TFIIH
What are the three types of RNA polymerase in eukaryotes?
I - make 45S pre-rRNA, II makes pre-mRNA and U1-U5 snRNAs and miRNAs, III - other small RNAs e.g. tRNA
How many subunits does RNA polymerase have?
12
Which amino acids are transcription factors rich in?
Acidic, glutamine or proline
What do transcription factors bind to?
Upstream promoter elements
What do the two domains of the trainscription factors bind to?
One for DNA, one for co-activators or co-repressors
How do you identify functional parts of promoters?
Choose an easily assayable enzyme eg firefly luciferase and put it in a plasmid, put potential regulatory fragments upstream and see if it’s expressed, keep removing parts and you’re left with the bit the TFs bind to
How do you do DNA footprinting?
Label some DNA with 32P, divide it into two tubes, add binding proteins to one tube, break it up using DNAse I, compare both using electophoresis and there will be a gap at the binding site
What is the gap at the binding site called in DNA footprinting?
Protected region
Which enzyme is used to break up DNA using footprinting?
DNAse I
What forms a pre-initiation complex and what does it need to initiate transcription?
Transription factors and RNA pol II
What makes up TFIID?
TATA + TATA binding protein + TBP associated factors
What initiates PIC assembly? And how?
TATA binding protein by bending DNA so other proteins can bind
What does TFIIF bring?
RNA polymerase II
What is the order of promoter elements from upstream to downstream?
Enhancer > response elements > Upstream promoter elements > Promoter core elements > Transcription start
What happens to nucleosomes during transcription?
Don’t dissassemble but most promoters are nucleosome-free
What do AP1/AP2 do?
Enhancers recognised by c-Fos and c-Jun.
What are GRE and CRE?
Glucocorticoids and cAMP response elements
What does CREB-binding protein do?
It is a HAT
Where are histone deacetylases found?
Repressor transcription factors
What does ChIP do?
Finds direct evidence for binding sites of transcription factors
What is the process of ChIP?
Use formaldehyde to crosslink chromatin and the binding proteins, shear DNA into small fragments using ultrasound, use an antibody to the TF to fish out the TF and the DNA it binds to, use a protease so only the DNA is left, identify the DNA using PCR
How does transcription rate enhancement occur when enhancers are far away from promoters?
DNA bending
Why are many TFs dimers?
Response elements are symmetrical
What are some tissue-specific transcription factors?
MyoD in myoblasts and Oct-2 in light and heavy immunoglobulin genes in B lymphocytes
What do Hox genes encode?
Transcription factors
What is the homeodomain of a Hox gene?
Binds specific promoter sequences in genes encoding segment identity
How does CREB activate pol II?
adrenaline/glucagon > adenyl cyclase > cAMP > PKA > phosphorylates CREB > binds CBP (HAT) > which activates pol II
What is CREB a transcription factor for?
cAMP response element (CRE)
How do steroid/thyroxine/vitamin D transcription factors work?
Hormone binds to receptor, receptor activated, binds to hormone response elements, transcription activated
What are the mechanisms of action of the glucocorticoid receptor?
Cortisol binds, hsp90 dissociates, receptor dimerises, moves into nucleus. ALSO: cortisol binds, transcriptional activator domain activated, activates gene expression following DNA binding
What happens to chromtin structure after a ligand binds to it?
Receptor alters chromatin structure so general transcription factors can access core promoter elements
What makes up AP1?
c-Fos + c-Jun
What has to happen to p53 for it to activate transcription?
Phosphorylated by a CDK
What causes retinoblastoma?
Loss of tumour suppressor Rb - it’s phosphorylated to allow transcription and if this is inappropriate you get retinoblastomas
What is the structure of the eukaryote and prokaryote cap?
Eukaryote: m7G5’ppp5’N and Prokaryote: p5’N
What is capped pre-RNA bound by?
RNPs for stability
What are the roles of the 5’ cap?
Protect from 5’ exonucleases, increases splicing efficiency of 5’ proximal introns, export to cytoplasm and translation initiation
What are the roles of the poly(A) tail?
Protects from 3’ exonucleases, controls degradation rate and enhances translation rate
Where is the poly(A) tail added and what happens to it during transport to the cytoplasm?
Added in the nucleus then shortens
How is the eukaryotic cap added?
Phosphate removed from 5’pppN end of new RNA, enzyme adds GMP from GTP, forms G5’ppp5’N, the added G is methylated at the 7 position, the second methyl group is added to the 2’OH of the first ribose
What is the methyl donor for the added G in the eukaryotic cap?
S-adenosylmethionine
Why is the G5’ppp5’N unusual?
5’-5’ bond
What binds to accessory factors and co-ordinates adding of protein-coated As?
CPSF
What do histone genes not have?
Introns
Why is the precise 3’ end with the poly (A) tail needed?
Pol II transcription doesn’t terminate precisely
What is the process of adding the poly(A) tail?
Pre-mRNA is first cleaved between AUAAA and GU/U-rich sequence, then poly(A) polymerase adds As, then the downstream fragment is degraded
Which enzyme adds the poly(A) tail?
Poly(A) polymerase
What are genomic DNA libraries for?
To determine gene structure, characterise sequences regulating transcription, express bacterial proteins
What are cDNA libraries for?
To determine mRNA sequence, express eukaryotic proteins, characterise regulatory sequence in UTR
How do you find which mRNAs are found in a specific cell type?
Extract RNA from cells, add reverse transcriptase, and RNase so single strand of DNA is left, use DNA polymerase to make the other strand (called cDNA), clone into vector
Which particles does splicing need?
snRNPs
What are the different types of snRNPs and why are they called this?
U1, U2 etc because uridine-rich
What are snRNPs transcribed from and by what?
Multicopy genes by RNA pol II except U6 which is pol III
What causes lupus?
Antibodies against snRNP proteins
What is the process of splicing?
2’OH of branch point adenosine attacks phosphate at 5’ end forming a lariat and the 5’ exon is released. The 3’OH of the released 5’ exon attacks the phosphate at the 3’ end of the intron. The exons join together and the lariat is released and degraded.
What happens to the number of phosphodiester bonds during splicing?
Conserved in number
What do introns have at the 5’ and 3’ end?
GU at 5’, AG at 3’
Which end of the splice site is the donor site and which is the acceptor site?
5’ is donor, 3’ is acceptor
What does U1 bind to?
The GU
What does U2 bind to?
The AG
What does U2AF bind to?
The pyrimidines behind the AG
What happens if there are mutations in the splice sites?
Either splicing inactivated or cell uses “cryptic splice sites” with similar sequences
What is alternative splicing?
Same gene does different things depending on where it’s spliced to increase coding capacity
What are some ways of alternative splicing?
Different 5’ site, common 3’ site, whether to splice or not, exon skipping, common 5’, different 3’
In which snRNPs does the RNA recognise the sequences at the start of each intron?
U1 and U2
How many snRNPs make up the spliceosome?
5
Which snRNPs make up the catalytic core of the spliceosome?
U2 and U6
What is the major type of RNA editing in eukaryote nuclei?
Base conversion
What is hydrolytic deamination and what changes can it cause?
Where C or A from genome is converted to U or I (inosine), can change codon, introduce stop codon or affect splicing or increase coding capacity
What is poly(A) tail shortening controlled by?
3’ UTR sequences
What does the neurofibromatosis gene encode and how does it work?
Encodes neurofibromin, a tumour suppressor which contains GTPase activating protein which interacts with Ras to regulate signal transduction
What does tumour editing in the NF1 gene cause?
Truncated protein at GAP domain and inactivates tumour suppressor function
What is the pathway for RNA degradation?
Deadenylation, decapping and 5’-3’ exonuclease
What is nonsense-mediated decay?
A degrading mutation involving premature stop codons
What happens to histone mRNA before targeted degradation?
Polyuridylated (gets poly(U) tail)
What do miRNA and RNAi (RISC) do?
Destabilise mRNA
What are the three stop codons?
UGA (amber), UAG (ochre) and UAA (opal)
How do you find out which codons do what?
Use synthetic polynucleotides eg) UUUUUUUU is poly(Phe)