Exam 2 prep

Question 1

What is a wild type allele?

Answer 1

It is the most common in the population. has the highest allele frequency charts. (ex: brown eyes might be the wild type allele rather than blue)

Question 2

If none of the alleles of a person match a parent, is that their parent?

Answer 2

No.

Question 3

What is the locus frequency?

Answer 3

The genetic probability for any STR locus

Question 4

What is the difference between heterozygous and homozygous?

Answer 4

2 different alleles or 2 of the same alleles.

Question 5

What is the profile frequency?

Answer 5

Looking at multiple loci, multiple locations for one person. You would multiply the locus frequencies together.

Question 6

Are alleles the same for all populations?

Answer 6

No. This is for general caucasian population. Different allele frequencies for different populations

Question 7

What is the difference between transcription and translation

Answer 7

Transcription: RNA being copied from DNA with RNA polymerase. It’s Complementary to the temple strand. Translation: Ribosomes and TRNA to read the codons (set of 3 base pairs) to make a chain of amino acids.

Question 8

What is an allele?

Answer 8

the number of repeats that a person has on one of their chromosomes

Question 9

What is a genotype?

Answer 9

It is their set of alleles (7, 7 or 8, 10, etc)

Question 10

By running PCR, and then running it on a gel – we can do what?

Answer 10

DNA profiling

Question 11

What is a DNA ladder?

Answer 11

It is on a gel and shows the solution of DNA molecules

Question 12

What can dna profiling be useful for?

Answer 12

crime scenes, relationships with parentage, siblings, etc.

Question 13

Explain 3 differences between DNA vs RNA

Answer 13

RNA uses uracil and DNA uses thyronine. DNA is double stranded and RNA is single stranded. DNA uses deoxyribose sugar and RNA uses the sugar ribose.

Question 14

What is one way you could know if something is already transcribed?

Answer 14

Because you will see uracil instead of thyronine

Question 15

What are missense mutations?

Answer 15

Missense mutation are differences in amino acids which causes genetic alteration.

Question 16

What are silent mutations?

Answer 16

Silent mutations are changes that don’t affect the amino acids or the genetics.

Question 17

What are nonsense mutations?

Answer 17

a mutation that causes a stop codon.

Question 18

What is gel electrophoresis

Answer 18

a method used by scientists to separate large molecules, such as DNA, by length, and determine how big they are.

Question 19

What are gels usually made of?

Answer 19

agarose that is collected from seaweed (looks like expensive jello)

Question 20

In what order should the numbers be listed?

Answer 20

Scientists traditionally write the smaller number first, and the bigger number second.

Question 21

What does it mean when only one band is present on a gel?

Answer 21

That means that they have a double allele (ex: 12, 12, or 10,10)

Question 22

What is the allele frequency?

Answer 22

The odds of an individual selected at random from a population possessing at least one copy of a certain allele at a given locus. This number is often expressed as a decimal number.

Question 23

What is an allelic marker?

Answer 23

A column in a gel that serves as a reference, indicating how far DNA segments of various lengths will travel through the gel. Also sometimes referred to as a DNA Ladder.

Question 24

What is a base pair?

Answer 24

Two complimentary DNA nucleotides located on opposite strands that are hydrogen bonded (ex CG and AT). Also abbreviated “bp”

Question 25

How do you count a base pair?

Answer 25

A and T are one pair and C and G are one pair. They go together and so even if a double stranded DNA has 24 bases, it would be 12 base pairs

Question 26

What is CODIS and what does it stand for?

Answer 26

Combined DNA Index System and it’s a nationwide database of criminal dna records operated by the FBI. It contains records detailing the STR alleles carried on twenty different loci by anyone that has been arrested in the United States, dating back to the year 1998. Many other countries have similar databases, including China, Canada, Great Britain, and almost every country in continental Europe.

Question 27

Explain junk regions

Answer 27

They are chromosomal DNA that has no apparent function. examples include satellite regions, insulators, introns, and telomeres.

Question 28

Define a locus

Answer 28

A specific location, or “address”, on a chromosome where a specific gene or STR string is found

Question 29

What is PCR?

Answer 29

An abbreviation for “Polymerase Chain Reaction”. It is a laboratory technique used to replicate short DNA segments outside of a cell with a test tube.

Question 30

Explain the big difference between PCR process and DNA replication?

Answer 30

Unlike the process of DNA Replication, which takes place in the cell, PCR only requires one enzyme: Taq Polymerase. This is because purchasing enzymes for laboratory use is very expensive, so, to keep PCR economical, we want to use as few enzymes as possible. It is important to note that PCR uses DNA primers, as opposed to the RNA primers used in cellular DNA replication.

Question 31

Name the 3 steps of the PCR process

Answer 31

1. Denaturation
2. Annealing
3. Elongation

Question 32

What does STR stand for?

Answer 32

Short Tandem Repeats

Question 33

What is STR?

Answer 33

They are segments of junk DNA consisting of varying numbers of repeating sequences, each repeat just a few bases long. Often referred to by the abbreviation “STR”.

Question 34

What is forensic profiling?

Answer 34

the study of dna and trace evidence in order to find information that can be used by authorities.

Question 35

What are post-translational modifications?

Answer 35

Proteins often need modifications to work properly. PTM regulates protein and cell activity. It activates different sites in the protein. It tags proteins for destruction, and helps with folding. Polypeptides become proteins.
Proteins gain their primary, secondary, and tertiary structures.
Pieces of a polypeptide or protein are occaisionally clipped off or altered.

Question 36

What is “primary protein structure”?

Answer 36

a form of folding: the sequence of amino acids that makes up a protein with a polypeptide chain.

Question 37

What is “secondary protein structure”?

Answer 37

a form of folding: the primary structure folds in different ways. that is depended on the amino acid arrangement it has. It’s like the backbone.

Question 38

What is “tertiary protein structure”?

Answer 38

This is a form of folding that continues and focuses more on the R group: side chains. It can define and change behavior for certain amino acids.

Question 39

What is protein synthesis

Answer 39

The process of making proteins

Question 40

Enzymes are frequently proteins. T or F

Answer 40

True

Question 41

What is an R group

Answer 41

A side chain

Question 42

What is Quaternary structure?

Answer 42

Proteins can be made with more than one polypeptide chains and so hydrogen bonds can fold to keep them together

Question 43

How does the folding process begin?

Answer 43

Proteins often have help in the folding process such as chaperonins. This can help it be folded correctly so it’s functional.

Question 44

What is ribosome?

Answer 44

a minute particle consisting of RNA and associated proteins found in large numbers in the cytoplasm of living cells. They bind messenger RNA and transfer RNA to synthesize polypeptides and proteins.

Question 45

T/F there are many diseases that are related to mis-folded proteins

Answer 45

True.

Question 46

What is denatured?

Answer 46

the Protein structure can be interfered and make it not work the way it’s supposed to. denaturing a protein can sometimes be irreversible and sometimes it is reversible.

Question 47

What is an enzyme?

Answer 47

Often a protein. Enzymes are the biological form of what chemists call “catalysts”. Enzymes have the ability to affect a reaction in a way that these three conditions are met far more easily and much, much more frequently and reliably. An enzyme’s name will almost always end with the suffix “-ase”. If you see “-ase” at the end of the word, it means “enzyme”.

Question 48

What are the little letters included before DNA or RNA sometimes?

Answer 48

They are an abbreviation that describes the role of that molecule

Question 49

What is the difference between a polypeptide and a protein?

Answer 49

They are very similar but it doesn’t become a protein without folding. A polypeptide is a chain of amino acids, and a protein is a polypeptide that has been folded into its specific 3-dimensional shape.Think of it like a piece of paper before turning into a paper airplane. The folding into a 3d structure is what makes it a protein. They are based on peptide bonds.

Question 50

What is the direction of synthesis for RNA Polymerase II?

Answer 50

Always 5 to 3. Any time you are working with a Polymerase enzyme to build either DNA or RNA, you ALWAYS build the new strand in the 5’ - 3’ direction

Question 51

Name a large enzyme complex, made of rRNA and protein, responsible for the synthesis of polypeptides.

Answer 51

Ribosome

Question 52

Which laboratory methods is/are involved in the process of forensic profiling?

Answer 52

Gel Electrophoresis and PCR

Question 53

What purpose does an mRNA molecule serve in the cell?

Answer 53

The “m” in mRNA stands for “messenger”. As its name implies, the mRNA serves as a messenger that delivers the gene message from the DNA inside the nucleus to the Ribosomes outside the nucleus.

Question 54

Possessing a certain amino acid sequence is important for a protein to function properly and Maintaining a specific 3-dimensional configuration
. T or F

Answer 54

True

Question 55

A special RNA molecule responsible for delivering the appropriate amino acid to the ribosome for incorporation into a polypeptide.

Answer 55

TRNA

Question 56

A term describing a trio of mRNA bases that codes for a specific amino acid.

Answer 56

Codon