Exam 1 Flashcards
what are the 3 parts that make up folate?
- pteridine ring (site of redox)
- PABA (used to make sulfa antibiotics)
- poly glutamate tail (cleaved to n=1 in brush border)
list 3 conditions than can inhibit folate absorption
- crohn’s disease
- alcohol abuse
- celiac disease
what is most of the folate in the body made from?
folate is the reduced form of tetrahydrofolate (FH4)
what is the most oxidized form of FH4? most reduced form?
Oxidized: N^10-formyl-FH4
Reduced: N^5-methyl-FH4 (its hard to return to the oxidized state which is used for more reactions)
what substrate is the major source of the one carbon pool?
serine (which can be made form glycolysis intermediates)
how does FH4 relate to cell division?
it’s essential for purine synthesis which is needed for cell division.
name 3 drugs that interfere with folate enzymes and what they do (in general).
- fluorouracil - (cancer drug) prevents conversion of dUMP to dTMP
- methotrexate - (cancer drug) prevents conversion of FH2 to FH4
- trimethoprim - (antimicrobial) inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (same as methotrexate?)
what is the main dietary source of folate? B12?
folate - leafy greens
B12 - animal products
what two major reactions require vitamin B12?
- homocysteine to methionine (requires B12 AND folate)
2. methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA (just B12)
what atom is found in the center of a vitamin B12 molecule
cobalt
what causes pernicious anemia?
a deficiency in intrinsic factor (which binds B12)
what is intrinsic factor used for?
it binds B12 and then binds receptors in the small intestine for absorption
what is the schilling test used for? what are the steps
to test if a patient has pernicious anemia
- two doses of B12, on labeled, one not then collect urine
- dose of labeled B12 with intrinsic factor
- two weeks of antibiotics then test levels again
- take pancreatic enzymes for several days then labeled B12
(if one test is abnormal then move on to the next)
what 2 molecules are used to make S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)?
- methionine (B12 used to make this)
2. ATP
what does SAM do?
it adds a methyl group to nitrogen or oxygen atoms in many different reactions.
it becomes SAH after it does so.
what is the methyl trap hypothesis?
when folate gets trapped in the reduced n^5-methyl-FH4 form which isn’t as useful as the oxidized form
what are some potential causes of hyperhomocysteinemia?
problems with B12, folic acid or PLP (therefore high levels of homocysteine can be indicators of a deficiency in one of these)
list 2 reasons why a folate deficiency is especially bad for pregnant women
- it can lead to neural tube defects in the developing fetus
- a folate deficiency can lead to inhibition of DNA synthesis
what is megaloblastic anemia? what causes it?
enlargement of RBCs due to a decrease in synthesis of thymine and purine bases (folate needed) which leads to decreased DNA synthesis. the large RBCs don’t’ function properly leading to anemia
caused by a deficiency of folate and/or B12
how many enzymes are needed for make IMP from ribose 5-phosphate? how many ATP are used?
11 enzymes
6 ATP
what 2 molecules is IMP used to synthesize? what molecules are the nitrogen donors to their respective purine ring?
- AMP - aspartate is nitrogen donor
2. GMP - glutamine is nitrogen donor
what 5 molecules are used to make purine? what does each contribute?
- formate - 2 carbons
- amide N from glutamine - 2 nitrogens
- aspertate - 1 nitrogen
- CO2 - 1 carbon
- glycine - 2 carbons, 1 nitrogen (whole molecule)
what regulates the production of the purines AMP and GMP? what other purine biosynthesis enzymes are regulated and by what?
AMP and GMP inhibit their own synthesis
- PRPP synthetase - inhibited by (G/A)DP
- glutamine phosphoribosyl aminotransferase - inhibited by (G/A)MP through (G/A)TP
what types of molecules can be salvaged for purines?
free bases, nucleosides and nucleotides
what is defective in lesch-nyhan syndrom? what is the result?
hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyltransferase is defective
the result is that purines are not salvaged and insted converted into uric acid (can lead to gout?)
what is the ultimate result of adenosine deaminase deficiency?
lymphocytes use the purine salvage pathway. if it can’t get purines then it will result then the body won’t be able to produce T or B cells (SCID?)
patient must be placed in a sterile environment
what type of molecule is IMP used for make? UMP?
IMP = purines
UMP = pyrimidines
how many enzymes are needed for make UMP from ribose 5-phosphate? how many ATP are used?
6 enzymes
2 ATP
what 3 molecules are used to make pyrimidine? what does each contribute?
- glutamine - 1 nitrogen
- HCO3 - 1 carbon
- Aspartate - 3 carbons, 1 nitrogen
what is the 2 step process of pyrimidine salvage?
- free bases converted to nucleosides via pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase
- nucleosides converted to nucleotides via nucleoside kinases
describe the process for deoxyribonucleotide formation
- ribose (NDP) converted to deoxyribose (dNDP) via ribonucleotide reductase (conversion of -OH on NDP to -H on dNDP)
- nucleoside diphosphate is then converted to triphosphate
for the following molecules list whether they are made de novo or not.
- pyrimidine
- purine
- deoxyribonucleotides
- yup
- yup
- nope, made from ribonucleotides
what is the result of a dNTP deficiency? in excess?
deficiency - lethal due to inability to make DNA
excess - mutagenic, especially if one is a higher concentration than the others
what molecule are purines broken down to? what problems can it cause?
what about pyrimidines?
uric acid and then excreted in urine. can cause gout if uric acid is excessive
pyrimidine degradation does not cause problems
what are the 2 main causes of gout? which is more common? what is used to treat gout?
- lack of excretion of uric acid [90% of the time]
- overproduction of uric acid (purine degradation) [10%]
treated with allopurinol
what two enyzmes are defective in orotic aciduria? how do you treat it?
- orotate phosphoribosyl transferase
- orotidine 5’-decarboxylase
treated with oral uridine
how does the synthesis of purines differ from pyrimidines?
purines are build onto PRPP whereas with pyrimidines the base is made first and then PRPP is added
how many rings do the following molecules have?
- purines
- pyrmidines
which bases are which?
purines - 2 rings (A and G)
pyrimidines - 1 ring (C and T)
what tautomeric form of nitrogenous bases is the dominant form?
lactam (keto)
what type of bond would you find between a nitrogenous base and a sugar? would this bond normally be in the “syn” or “anti” position?
N-glycosidic bond
normally in the anti position (due to less steric hindrance?)
what substituent is attached to the 5’ end of a phosphate backbone? what about the 3’ end?
5’ - phosphate
3’ - free OH
what bond holds the phosphate backbone of DNA together?
phosphodiester bonds
which nitrogenous bases pairs with which? how many hydrogen bonds does each pair form?
A and T(U) = 2 H-bonds
G and C = 3 H-bonds
is DNA a right or left handed helix?
right handed (clockwise)
which base pair more stable? how does this relate to the melting (denaturation) temperature?
G:C
the more G:C content in DNA, the higher the denaturation point
how do the following molecule react to basic solutions?
- DNA
- RNA
- DNA - mostly stable (at high levels is can cause denaturation)
- RNA - breaks apart (basic solution attacks 2’ OH and breaks the phosphodiester bond)
how many svedberg units are prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomes and their subunits?
prokaryotic - 70S (50S and a 30S)
eukaryotic - 80S (60S and a 40S)
(prokaryotes have odd first numbers and eukaryotes have even first numbers)
where would you find an anti-codon? what does it do?
on tRNA. its the part responsible for bringing in the amino acids being added to the polypeptide
what is Tm(subscript)? how do you calculate it? how does salt concentration affect Tm?
Tm is the point where 50% of the DNA is denatured.
Tm (in celcius) = 69.3 + 0.41(%G:C content)
salt concentration helps stabilize the solution and therefore raises Tm
what amino acids are most common in histones? how are histones charged?
lysine and arginine
positively charged
what is the function of the following histone types?
- H1
- H2A
- H2B
- H3
- H5
H1 joins the nucleosomes (beads) together
all the others work together to form the nucleosomes
what is zidovudine (ZDV)? how does it work?
an HIV drug show to slow progression.
it acts as an inhibitor of HIV’s reverse transcriptase preventing it from being able to add nucleotides to a 3’ end
what is 5-fluorouracil? how does it work?
an anti cancer drug
it inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase which is responsabe for the production of deoxythymidine. without that calls can’t make DNA
what is azithromycin? how does it work? are there any side effects?
an antibacterial drug.
it binds to the 50S ribosome subunit and prevents protein synthesis
however it can also sometimes bind to mitochondiral ribosomes
what is ciprofloxacin? how does it work?
an antibiotic
it binds/inhibits bacterial DNA gyrase
list the function of the following enzymes:
- helicase
- topoisomerase I
- topoisemerase II
- single strand binding proteins
- DNA polymerase
- Primase
- Ligase
- telomerase
- helicase - unzips DNA strand
- topoisomerase I - cuts one strand of DNA
- topoisemerase II (gyrase) - cuts both strands to relieve supercoiling
- single strand binding proteins - binds to the DNA as it unwinds to prevent re-association and enzyme degradation
- DNA polymerase - synthesized DNA (also some have proofreading activity)
- Primase - adds RNA primers upstream (polymerase needs 3’ OH to function)
- Ligase - joins strands together
- telomerase - adds nucleotides (TTAGGG) to the 3’ end
what is the conservation of DNA replication?
semiconcervative - one old strand and one new
what direction is the leading strand synthesized in? what about the lagging strand?
are they continous?
which eukaryotic polymerase is used at which strand?
leading - 5’ to 3’ (continuous) - Pol. epsilon
lagging - 3’ to 5’ (not continuous) - Pol. delta
list 3 differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA replication
- eukaryotic genomes are much bigger
- euakryotes have histones/nucleosomes
- prokaryotes have circular DNA
what are the general functions of the following processes?
- base excision repair (BER)
- nucleotide excision repair (NER)
- mismatch repair
- BER - removal of a damaged base that cannot be directly repaired
- NER - correction of large segments (pyrimidine dimers of bulky substituents
- mismatch repair - fixes errors in replication that were missed by proofreading
what is translocation? what’s the difference between balanced and unbalanced?
the exchange of large segments of DNA between two non-homologous chromosomes.
balanced - no loss of genetic function
unbalanced - results in extra or missing genes
what is the difference between DNA and cDNA?
cDNA is made from an RNA template (via reverse transcriptase) therefore it will not contain any introns
what direction is RNA synthesized?
5’ to 3’ (complementary to DNA template strand)
new bases added to 3’ end
which way does DNA dependent RNA polymerase synthesize RNA and read DNA?
synthesizes: 5’ to 3’
reads DNA: 3’ to 5”
how many subunits does DNA dependent RNA polymerase have? what are they?
4 subunits
- 2 alpha
- 1 beta
- 1 beta prime
what is the sigma factor? how does it relate to RNA polymerase?
the sigma factor is a protein than scans the DNA for promoters. once it finds one, it allows RNA polymerase to bind to it.
RNA polymerase w/o sigma = apoenzyme
RNA polymerase w/ sigma = holoenzyme
for the following RNA polymerases, list which RNA type they make:
- I
- II
- III
- I = rRNA (except the small 5S rRNA)
- II = mRNA
- III = tRNA and 5S rRNA
differentiate the DNA template strand and coding strand in terms of RNA
template strand - used by RNA polymerase to make RNA
coding strand - resembles the RNA produced but NOT used by RNA polymerase
what does polycistronic mean?
it’s a mechanism used by some prokaryotes where a single RNA produces codes for multiple genes that are all part of the same metabolic pathway. (ex. lac operon)
which end of a gene would you find a promoter?
5’ (starting end)
list 2 prokaryotic promoter elements and where they are usually found
- pribnow box (TATAAT) at -10
2. TTGAGA at -35
list 2 eukaryotic promoter elements and where they are usually found
- hogness (TATA box) at -25
2. CAAT and GC rich regions found between -40 and -100
differentiate cis vs. trans DNA factors
cis - DNA sequence than can bind to a protein factor
trans - protein than can potentially bind DNA sequence
for the following, list what they are and how they affect transcription:
- enhancer element
- repressor
- silencer element
- enhancer element - cis element that binds a transcriptional activator (increases transcription)
- repressor - protein that binds to a silencer element (slows transcription)
- silencer element - cis element that binds to repressors (slows transcription)
what is hnRNA?
pre-mRNA, RNA that has not received any processing yet
what is done to RNA to make a fully mature mRNA?
- 5’ cap added (methylated GTP)
- poly A tail added (binding site for proteins and stabilizes RNA)
- introns spliced out
- transported out of the nucleus to cytoplasm
what molecule preforms RNA intron splicing?
snRNPs
what is thalassemia?
an autosomal recessive blood disorder (found in the Mediterranean region) where a variant or missing gene in the hemoglobin gene affects for its’ made