Exam 1 Flashcards
describe Western Blotting (what is it, what is it used for, positive or negative controls, etc.)
- allows for the presence or absence of a particular protein to be detected within a specific tissue
- uses 1D gel electrophoresis
- steps: sample preparation, SDS page, transfer of protein, blocking, incubation with primary and secondary antibodies and detection of target protein
- positive control: tissue that is known to express the protein you are looking for
describe Southern Blotting (what is it, what is it used for, positive or negative controls, etc.)
- allows for the study/analysis of a single genes, specifically the structure of different genes in different cell types
- electrophoresis of DNA that has been cut by a restriction enzyme, run through an agarose gel, then transferred to a nitrocellulose filter, where hybridization occurs and the probe detects homologous DNA
describe Northern Blotting (what is it, what is it used for, positive or negative controls, etc.)
- allows for the study of a single gene (RNA)
- the RNA extracted from a particular tissue is electrophoresed on an agarose gel, transferred to a nitrocellulose filter, and hybridized to a radioactive probe derived from the gene encoding the mRNA of interest
- something that you know contains the RNA sequence that you are looking for in your Northern blots
what is the probe in Western blotting?
antibody
what happens in first dimension isoelectric focusing?
protein’s charge influences migration
what happens in second dimension isoelectric focusing?
protein’s mass influences migration
why is it beneficial to run a 2D gel after a 1D gel?
the proteins will move to a position in the gel based on both their size and charge, allowing for much greater resolution and allows a number of differences in protein composition of particular tissues to be identified
define proteomics
large scale study of proteins
define transcriptomics
study of the transcriptome (set of all
RNA molecules in cells or tissues)
what is the probe in Northern blotting?
radiolabeled DNA
what is the probe in Southern blotting?
radiolabeled DNA
what is on the membrane in a Western Blot? Northern? Southern?
- W: protein
- N: RNA
- S: DNA
describe the technique of RT/PCR (what is it, how is it done, why is it useful)
- reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
- RT reverse transcribes mRNA to DNA called cDNA, this cDNA is then specifically amplified by hybridization with complimentary primers and DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase enzyme
- is more sensitive than Northern blots
- very rare transcript abundance can be measured
describe the gene chip technique (what is it, how is it done, why is it useful)
- gene chip analysis allows for/combines the ability to look at variation in the total RNA population of different tissues with the ability to look specifically at the variation of specific mRNA **mRNA expression patterns in different tissues
- a gene chip is prepared containing sequence information from a wide variety of RNAs (done either by spots of cDNAs or oligonucleotides), then hybridize with fluorescent sequences prepared from all the mRNAs in an individual tissue (if mRNA is present in a tissue, the chip will fluoresce, with the signal being proportional to the amount of RNA present)
- usefulness: can spot out many different DNA sequences onto a very small chip and obtain a lot of data, shows qualitative and quantitative differences in the mRNA populations of different tissues
what are the negatives of gene chip analysis?
- microarrays can be biased because someone has to choose what to place on the array
- cross hybridization can occur
- difficulty quantifying highly or lowly expressed genes
describe RNAseq
- technique that uses next-generation sequencing to reveal the presence and quantity of RNA molecules in a biological sample, providing a snapshot of gene expression in the sample, also known as transcriptome
- allows researchers to detect both known and novel features in a single assay
what did Southern blotting help to prove, or rather disprove?
- disproved the DNA loss model (where scientists thought that gene expression differences were due to DNA loss) as well as the DNA amplification model and rearrangement model
- it did this by showing that specific DNA bands are still present even in a tissue where the gene is not expressed (DNA loss model), and the bands do not become more intense in tissues with expression (DNA amplification model) and there is no difference in the size of the band between different expressing tissues (DNA rearrangement model)
what are totipotent cells?
cells that can give rise to all the cell types in an adult organism
what conclusion did experiments with totipotent cells help scientists come to?
irreversible changes to DNA are not responsible for control of gene expression during differentiation
describe isoelectric focusing
the separation of proteins based on their charge
describe SDS-PAGE
an electrophoresis method that allows protein separation by mass
describe the pulse labeling technique (what is it, how is it done, why is it useful)
what is a limitation of it?
- used to assess the transcription rate of a specific gene (gene A) by measuring the amount of radioactivity (dots) incorporated into nascent transcripts
- first, nuclei is isolated, then radioactive nucleotide is added, allowing for transcription to occur, incorporating the radioactive NT to the nascent RNA chains, followed by hybridization to DNA of gene A
- provides the most direct means of measuring transcription
- limitation: brief labeling times, so primarily target highly expressed RNAs (rare RNAs don’t incorporate enough to label to become detectable)
describe the nuclear run-on assay technique (what is it, how is it done, why is it useful)
allows transcriptional control to be demonstrated for a wide variety of genes (more sensitive than pulse labeling because more radioactivity gets into cell)
describe micrococcal nuclease digestion
- mild DNA digestion enzyme
- targets linker DNA between nucleosomes
- organizes DNA into nucleosomes
describe DNaseI hypersensitive analysis
- used for detecting DNase1 hypersensitive sites
- isolate chromatin
- digest with very small amount of DNase1
- purify partially digested DNA by removing protein
- digest with restriction enzyme and carry out Southern blotting, probing for gene of interest
- monitor appearance of specific smaller band due to presence of DNase1 hypersensitive site within the DNA being tested
describe chromosome immunoprecipitation
- ChiP
- chromatin fragments from a sample are purified. antibodies then specifically recognize methylated C residues and are then immunoprecipitated, allowing for analysis by high-throughput DNA sequencing
sodium bisulfite treatment vs sodium butyrate treatment
- sodium bisulfite: takes unmethylated cytosine residues and converts them to uracil
- sodium butyrate: inhibits a cellular deacetylase activity, therefore increasing acetylation
describe mapping global DNA methylation patterns and histone modifications
- split chromatin sample
- do ChIP assay on one and ChIP + sodium bisulfite on another
- for the ChIP assay, look at DNA modification pattern. for the ChIP + SB, look at the DNA methylation pattern
- through computational methods, create map comparing histone modifications and DNA methylation patterns across entire genome
what is significant about a puff on polytene chromosomes?
they represent areas of intense transcriptional activity and can be directly visualized via radiolabeled nucleotides
in what ways do regulatory RNAs influence gene expression?
- can block transcription (negative regulation)
- can amplify transcription (positive regulation)
what type of regulatory RNAs exist? how are they synthesized?
- miRNAs: synthesized from a single-stranded RNA that has formed a hair loop
- siRNAs: processed from a dsRNA precursor
what is chromatin?
a complex of DNA and proteins, can influence gene expression
compare open and closed chromatin and the structure of open and closed chromatins
- open = active, euchromatin
- closed = inactive, heterochromatin
what influences chromatin structure?
histone post translational modifications (HPTMs), DNA methylation, histone variants, remodeling enzymes, and effector proteins
what enzymes are capable of modifying histones?
histone acetyl transferases (HAT), histone deacetylases (HDAC), histone methyl transferases (HMT), histone demethylases (HDM) and TET enzymes
how are DNA methylation patterns maintained?
- maintenance methylation: Dnmt1
^ recognizes hemi-methylated duplexes
^ does not methylate unmethylated sites - De novo: Dnmt3a or Dnmt3b
^ target only fully unmethylated C-G duplexes
how are DNA methylation patterns modified?
- enzymes such as HDAC, HMT, TET and HAT as well a ubiquitination and MeCP2 proteins
- active demethylation
- passive demethylation
what factors does HP1 interact with? what does HP1 do?
- binds to methylated lysine 9 residues
- recruitment of HP1 results in tightly packed organization/structure (heterochromatin)
- can also recruit an HMT enzyme, promoting the methylation of K9 on adjacent chromosomes, leading to more heterochromatin/tight packing of chromatin
what histone modification promotes HP1 interaction with histones? which histone does HP1 interact with?
- methylation of K9
- H3
describe Dnmt1
- maintenance methylation
- recognizes only hemi-methylated sites (only one C is methylated) and methylates the second site
what is ecdysone and does ecdysone treatment do?
hormone, triggers transcription
what is the function of miRNAs? does it require Dicer protein for maturation? single or double stranded RNA?
- function: control of cellular gene expression
- require Dicer: yes
- ssRNA
what is the function of siRNAs? does it require Dicer protein for maturation? single or double stranded RNA?
- function: control of viral and cellular gene expression
- require Dicer: yes
- dsRNA
what is the role of Dicer in regulatory RNAs?
- for miRNA, it binds and then cuts the ssRNA portion of hair-pin loop, releasing the dsRNA pieces with one being degraded and one forming the miRNA
- for siRNA, it binds to the dsRNA and then cleaves it into smaller dsRNA molecules, and one of these forms the siRNA
what did scientists initially characterize the production of siRNAs as?
a defense mechanism against invading viruses
define transgene
a gene from one source that has been incorporated into the genome of another organism
define promoter
a sequence of DNA needed to turn a gene on or off. the process of transcription is initiated at the promoter. usually found near the beginning of a gene, the promoter has a binding site for the enzyme used to make an mRNA molecule
transgene inserts can lead to formation of _______
siRNAs
TP = ______
CP = ______
- transgene promoter
- cellular promoter
pseudogene expression can lead to formation of ______
siRNAs
what is a pseudogene?
a false gene/a gene that does not code for a functional protein
how can/do transgene insertions lead to formation of siRNAs?
- transgene inserts itself into host genome close to a cellular promoter
- CP transcribes transgene in antisense orientation
- this antisense RNA transcript can then bind to the normal sense RNA transgene transcript
- dsRNA
- dsRNA will bind a Dicer protein
- Dicer cuts up the dsRNA and produces siRNA which can bind both the sense and antisense of the transgene
how can/do the expression of pseudogenes lead to formation of siRNAs?
- pseudogene is transcribed to produce an antisense transcript
- antisense transcript can hybridize to the protein-encoding region of the sense transcript of the functional gene
- this serves as substrate for siRNA
what are lncRNAs? what do they do?
-generally defined as transcripts more than 200 nucleotides that are not translated into protein
- can regulate gene expression in two ways:
- altering chromatin structure by recruiting RF that promotes heterochromatin
- competition for regulatory proteins (regulatory proteins might “prefer” lncRNAs and then activation of protein-coding gene isn’t occurring)
describe histones H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 (type and molar ratio)
- H2A: slightly lysine rich, molar ratio of 2
- H2B: slightly lysine rich, molar ratio of 2
- H3: arginine-rich, molar ratio of 2
- H4: arginine rich, molar ratio of 2
describe the histone fold
- 3 alpha helices
- allows heterodimer formation