Exam 1 Flashcards
Describe Deoxyribonucleic acid
-Repeating units
-nucleotides
-double-stranded
-the first step of the Central dogma
-DNA as chemical of heredity
How did Darwin contribute to the idea of DNA?
The theory of pangenesis
What is the theory of pangenesis?
Genetic traits are shaped by life experience and transferred by pangenes to
gamete cells via the blood enabling inheritance
Gemmules’ are shed by cells of the body, collected in the sex organs, and transmitted to the next generation
What did Mendel conclude about evolution?
Traits are inherited in a predictable manner of factors (genes) that exist in pairs. These split up when gamete cells are formed and reformed when the union of two gametes occurs during fertilization.
What did Sutton conclude in the 1900s about Mendel particles?
suggests for the first time in a concrete way that hereditary material (genes, after 1909) lay on the chromosomes that contain Mendel’s particles of heredity and that these chromosomes come in pairs
What did Miescher Isolate in 1869 and why was it important?
He would isolate a substance called nuclei from rupture membranes releasing acidic phospurus substances. With unique properties of nitrogen and phosphorus. The bases were known as A, G, C, T U
What is the structure of a nucleotide?
Phosphate group PO4, Five carbon sugars, Nitrogen-containing bases: Purine or pyrimidine
Name the Purines.
Adenine (A), Guanine ( G)
Name the Pyrimidines.
Thymine (T), cytosine (C), and RNA contain Uracil (U) not T
Where is chemical heredity located?
In the chromosome
In 1940 Which researchers found that Transformation of hereditary could be passed from dead to living and how?
1940-Griffith injected mice with various strains of one bacteria (based on a 1928 observation by Griffith who studied two strains of bacteria)
Virulent and Non-Virulent
Something transferred from the virulent (heat-killed strain) to the non-virulent
The non-virulent strain had become virulent
In 1944 which researcher proved that DNA was a possible hereditary material and how?
1944, Avery and coworkers
* Prepared mixture of the dead S strain (virulent)
and the live R strain
* Removed 99.9% of the protein from this mixture
* Transforming ability was not lost
* DNA digestion enzymes (DNase) completely removed the transforming ability
Determining the removal of DNA led to the loss of transformation leading to the conclusion that DNA was the hereditary material.
What are Chargaff’s rules?
1949
* Chargaff’s Analysis: DNA Is Not a Simple Repeating
Polymer
* Found base amounts differed, depending on the source
* Composition of nucleotides varied in complex ways
* Found proportions of certain nucleotides equal to others
* Proportion of adenine (A) equal to thymine (T)
* Proportion of guanine (G) equal to cytosine (C)
Who followed up the Avery experiment and how is it important?
1952-The Hershey-Chase Experiment: Some Viruses Direct Their Heredity with DNA; follow-up to Avery’s experiments
* Examined bacteriophage viruses that attack bacteria
* Bacteriophages possess either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein coat– In this case DNA
* Lytic virus injects viral genetic material into bacteria
* Causes production and release of more viruses when cell lyses
What atoms are found in protein and how are they marked?
Sulfur which can be labeled with radioactive material like S35
What atoms are found in DNA and how are they marked?
Phosphate which can be labeled with radioactive material like P32
What is the Lytic cycle?
The virus enters the cell where it will produce more phages and finally, causes lyses which leads to phages then going to attack other cells where the lytic cycle continues to take place or the lysogenic cycle can occur.
What is the Lysogenic cycle?
The phage integrates itself into the chromosome becoming a prophage. When cell replication occurs the prophage copies itself onto other daughter cells this can lead to either the production of many infected bacteria or the start of a lytic cycle.
Why is S35 used to target protein identification?
Proteins are made up of amino acids and it happens that the start codon also known as Methionine (met, AUG) is found In the majority of proteins it’s a good marker for proteins.
Why is P32 a good marker for DNA/RNA?
DNA is composed of a Phosphate backbone allows it to recognize it when exposed to P32.
Describe the procedure of the Hershey and Chase experiment. and what was learned in the process.
Step 1: Grow bacteria for 4 hours with S35 or P32; allow these isotopes to enter the cells
* Step II: Infect with bacteriophage and allow generation of new bacteriophage that are now labeled, then purify bacteriophage
* Step III: Infect fresh bacteria with newly labeled bacteriophage P32 or S35
* Step IV: Proceed with the identification of supernatant and pellet
-P32 labeled DNA was transferred into the CELL NOT Protein
-Progeny phage contained P32
- DNA is the hereditary material
Who proposed the idea of genes encoding for enzymes?
In 1940
Beadle and Tatum experiment with bread mold (Neurospora crassa), a haploid organism
* Proposed the one gene, one enzyme hypothesis
* We now know that some enzymes are composed of
multiple subunits encoded by different genes
* We now know that not all proteins are enzymes
* ONE GENE»>ONE POLYPEPTIDE (in this case we mean protein)
What are the exceptions to one gene->one polypeptide?
-some genes code for functional RNAs, not proteins
-some genes code for more than one polypeptide
-sometimes enzymes
Where is DNA located?
Nucleus
Where is protein synthesized?
Cytoplasm
who proposes the biological information flow? and what was it?
Crick
DNA-> RNA-> Protein
DNA acts as its template
with the existence of different RNAs
Name the main RNAs
rRNA
mRNA
tRNA
What is rRNA?
rRNA (ribosomal RNA discovered in the 1950s by Paul Zamecnik) 80% of all RNA in a cell
What is mRNA?
mRNA (Brenner, Monad 1960s) (made by transcription with RNA polymerase) also known as the messenger RNA
What is tRNA?
tRNA (1955 Crick hypothesized its existence): 3 bases in tRNA form base pairs with a triplet sequence in mRNA; amino acid is attached to tRNA
What does translation require?
Requires all 3 RNAs
Where do all RNAs come from?
All RNAs are transcribed from DNA genes
Explain what the human genome project found in 2003.
Most of our cells are diploid
* 46 chromosomes
* About 3 billion base pair
in 23 chromosomes
* About 37 trillion cells in the human body
What is life? what are the requirements for something to be considered life?
Life is a system capable of Darwinian evolution
-Raw materials
-Energy
-A barrier between the living and inanimate world
-catalysis ( enzymes)
-Biological information (DNA for long term storage)
What is a cell?
- The cell is the smallest unit of organization that can perform all activities required for life
- Every cell is enclosed by a membrane that regulates the passage of materials between the cell and its surroundings.
- Every cell uses DNA as its genetic information.
- Some viruses (parasitic infectious agents) use RNA BUT they are not
considered cells - The cells of bacteria and archaea are prokaryotic, while all other forms of life are composed of eukaryotic cells
What are the three domains of life?
Archae, Bacteria, And eukarya
When did life appear on Earth?
3.6 billion years
What is the RNA or RNA-protein world hypothesis?
RNA hypothesis (proposed in the 1960s)
* RNA enzymes: replicate RNA
* Experiments using prebiotic conditions to prove this
* Discovery of Ribozymes/catalytic RNA (more than just splicing and ligation)
* In Ribosomes, it is the RNA that is the active part
* Recent discoveries that RNA can be self-replicating
What is LUCA?
The last universal common ancestor the root of the domain tree probably 3 billion years old
What genes are truly universal in all living systems?
All life uses DNA but…
* Only universal genes are those coding for the cellular machinery for protein synthesis and some parts of RNA transcription
* All organisms share the same genetic code (with very minor differences)
* The same code must have been present in LUCA