Exam 1

Question 1

Behavior results from the interaction of _______ and the ________.

Answer 1

1. Genes
2. Environment

Question 2

What behaviors can be shaped by the environment?

Answer 2

ALL behaviors including innate behaviors with maternal and reproductive behaviors

Question 3

What is required to make a neural cirtcuit and how do they differ in simple and complex organisms?

Answer 3

• For the development and function of a single neural circuit, a wide variety of structural and regulatory proteins are required.
• Some of these proteins are products of genes ubiquitously expressed while others are products of genes with local/restricted expression pattern local/restricted expression pattern.
• Simple organisms have simple neural circuits, in more complex organisms neural circuits are also more complex.

Question 4

How is behavior affected by subtle changes in gene expression in neural cirtcuits?

Answer 4

–Absence of expression

– Overexpression

– Changes in the degree of expression

– Expression of splice isoforms

– Protein posttranslational modifications (phosphorylation etc.)

– Changes in expression pattern Changes in expression pattern

– There are many more DNA, RNA and protein modifications that affect gene expression.

Question 5

What is the purpose of molecular genetics?

Answer 5

• Provides the techniques to identify the genes involved in a particular behavior and to determine how the proteins they encode control behavior.
• In worms, flies, and even in vertebrate organinisms such as mice and zebra fish, it is possible to examine directly how genes influence behavior because single influence behavior because single-gene mutants of these organisms can be bred and isolated.

Question 6

The 20th Century was a century of…

Answer 6

DNA, RNA, and Protein in Biology

Question 7

The 21st century is a century of…

Answer 7

Brain biology where we can use what we know from DNA and RNA to create the study of brain functions

Question 8

What is phenylketonuria?

Answer 8

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a birth defect that causes an amino acid called phenylalanine to build up in the body. Phenylalanine is a building block of proteins (an amino acid) that is obtained through the diet. It is found in all proteins and in some artificial sweeteners. If PKU is not treated, phenylalanine can build up to harmful levels in the body, causing intellectual disability and other serious health problems. Is involved with chromosome 13.

Question 9

Genetic information is stored in…

Answer 9

Chromosomes

Question 10

Name some model organisms used in neuroscience

Answer 10

Mice

Flies (Dragon Melangoster)

Slugs (Aplysia)- More than half a billion years ago sea slugs and humans diverged from a common ancestor. They are relevant in neuroscience because scientists have found genes that are very similar to humans meaning they serve the same function. Another reason that they picked sea slug Aplysia Californica is because they have large brain cell and also have only 20,000 neurons.

Yeast- Yeast cells are known to share the core biology of human cells. Yeast cells are often used in test tubes to observe how protein misfolding happens and what the cure could be for it. Protein misfolding in the brain can lead to diseases such as Alzheimer’s

Question 11

Name some journals that publish about neuroscience

Answer 11

Neuron, Science

Question 12

Humans have ___ chromosomes and ___ sets of autosomes.

There are about ______ genes in each cell in are about 80,000 genes in each cell in the human body.

Answer 12

46 chromosomes

22 autosomes

80,000

Question 13

The reason cells differ from one another is that a distinct set of genes is…

Answer 13

Expressed in each cell type.

Question 14

How many chromosomes are in the mouse?

Answer 14

40 Chromosomes

Question 15

Name 2 things that genes regulate

Answer 15

1) Genes regulate behavior
2) Genes are involved in emotional regulation of behaviors

Question 16

How do mouse behaviors relate to human behaviors?

Answer 16

They react similar to fear stimuli

They have the same brain regions dealing with fear which involves the amygdala

Question 17

Knockout of a single gene can have significant affect on…

Answer 17

Behavior

Question 18

What are the 2 main genetics approaches along with their methods and essential requirments

Answer 18

1. Specific amplification- Have cell based DNA cloning and Polymerase-mediated invitro DNA cloning
2. Specific detection- Molecular hybridization

Question 19

Describe the cloning of PCR products and their enzymes along with its different types of cloning

Answer 19

• PCR enzymes can create blunt-end products or put at the end a single “A” (original Taq polymerase)

• PCR enzymes can make quite a few mistakes (original Taq polymerase) or can have a “proof can have a “proof-reading” activity reading” activity

Types of cloning

– Blunt-end cloning

– TA cloning

– Through incorporation of restriction sites in PCR oligo

• Through incorporation of restriction sites in PCR oligo-primers

Question 20

What are some classical methods to detect an analyze gene transcription products (DNA)?

Answer 20

Northern Blotting

RT-PCR and Q-PCR

cDNA

RNA in Situ Hybridization

Question 21

What is northern blotting and its advantages?

Answer 21

• Size
• Integrity
• Amount

Question 22

Describe RNA in Situ Hybridization

Answer 22

• Allows to analyze where a gene of interest is expressed in the brain
• Uses slices (cuts) of the brain as a target for RNA/oligo to hybridize
• Can be semi-quantitative