Exam 4 (quizlet with all) Flashcards
Silent Mutation
- change at the DNA level
- point mutation alters a codon but doesn’t result in a change of amino acid
- wobble codon helps bc more than one codon can code for an amino acid
Poly-A tail
- Located at 3’ end of euk mRNA
- Plays a role in translation by enhancing binding of small ribosomal subunit to mRNA
- If absent: mRNA is degraded in cytoplasm
Neutral mutation
- Changes the coded amino acid but does not alter function of protein
- effect is negligible
- Can occur in protein-coding region or any part of genome
IF-2
- plays direct role in initiation
- interacts with mRNA and charged tRNA
- stabilizes them in the P site
Amino acids join by _____
- peptide bonds
miRNA
- Controls gene expression (RNA-induced gene silencing)
- a reduction in expression of tumor cells is seen
- Probably involved in later stage of tumor progression
Base/Base Pair substitution
- point mutation
- The alteration of a single nucleotide of a triplet by substitution which changes the codon
- may or may not have an impact, still kinda readable
- When one nucleotide is changed, its corresponding base on other strand is also impacted
2 types:
1. transition
2. transversion
Visible mutation
- Alters a normal or wild-type visible phenotype
- Most easily observable mutation bc affects morphological trait
Induced mutation
Mutations that occur as result of outside/extraneous factors (natural or artificial agents)
Ex:
- UV radiation from sun (natural)
- chemicals (artificial)
Insulators
- A boundary element (DNA sequence) that limits the range of enhancers/silencers
Cloverleaf model of tRNA
- Proposed by Robert Holley
- tRNA displays secondary structure
Clonal evolution of cancer
- Multiple rounds of clonal evolution (replication) allow tumor cells to become aggressive (malignant)
- Tumors are clonal: these cells originated from a common ancestral cell that accumulated specific mutations
DNA repair in general:
- Requires two nucleotide strands
2. Many types of DNA damage can be corrected by more than one path
Epigenetics in tumourogenesis
- study of factors that affect gene expression, but do not alter nucleotide sequence of DNA
- Changes in methylation/acetylation of DNA/histones
- changes in chromatin structure
Environment correlation with cancer
- what you are exposed to environmentally has an affect on you
Reactive Oxidants (oxidative damage/radicals)
- By-products of processes of metabolism and self-defense
- DNA is damaged by the byproducts of normal cellular processes called reactive oxygen species
- can produce more than 100 types of chemical modifications in DNA, including modifications to bases, loss of bases, and single stranded breaks
Ex: superoxide (O2-), hydroxl radicals, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
Initiation factors (IFs)
- proteinaceous
- enhance binding affinity of various translational components
- At least 3 used in initiation
Mismatch repair
- DNA repair mechanism distinguishes strand with error from strand without
- found by DNA methylation
- newly synthesized DNA strand temporarily unmethylated in bacteria
- repair enzyme recognizes the mismatch and binds to the unmethylated strand
- creates a nick in the backbone of the unmethylated strand
- mismatch repaired by DNA polymerase & ligase
- not in eukaryotes
Philadelphia Chromosome
- formed by the c-ABL gene on chromosome 9 and is translocated into the BCR gene on chromosome 22
- chronic myelogenous leukemia
- The proto-oncogene on 9 fuses w/ BCR gene on 22
- allows cells to escape control of cell cycle
Negative inducible operon
- Active repressor is present/binded to operator, so no transcription occurs
- transcription OFF, active repressor
- inducer makes repressor inactive
- transcription occurs
Base Excision Repair (BER)
- Corrects DNA that contains damaged DNA base, clipped out
- Incorrect base pair
- DNA glycosylase excises wrong base
- leaves behind apurinic/apyrimidinic site
- endonuclease nicks strand
- DNA polymerase fills gap with correct base, ligase seals
- fixes pyrimidine dimers
trp Operon (tryptophan)
- Negative repressible operon
- transcription normally ON bc of inactive repressor
- must be turned OFF
- Lots of tryptophan (corepressor) present
- goes back to operon to activate the repressor
- stop tryptophan production
What is the attachment site for amino acids on ALL tRNA’s?
- CCA site on the 3’ end of amino acids
- BUT tRNAs are specific for a particular amino acid.
Translation
- of mRNA is the biological polymerization of amino acids into polypeptide chains (how triplet ribonucleotides of mRNA direct specific amino acids into their correct position in the polypeptide)
- occurs in association with ribosomes; 5’ to 3’ direction
- FOR BOTH EUK AND PROK
- occurs in the cytoplasm
- ribosomes are necessary
Termination steps of translation
- Stops codons (UAG, UAA or UGA) enter A-site
- GTP-dependent release factors cleave polypeptide chain from terminal tRNA
- tRNA released from ribosome, ribosome dissociates into subunits
Transversion
- draw
- Type of base substitution/point mutation
- A purine replaces a pyrimidine, or vice versa
Euk gene regulation with chromatin structure:
- Acetylation of histones
- opens chromatin allowing transcription - Methylation of histones
- can change chromatin packing, usually causing tightening (heterochromatin) - Methylation of DNA
- transcriptionally inactive parts of chromosome
RITS!!
Depurination
- The loss of one nitrogenous base in a double-helix DNA molecule
- The lost base is purine (adenine or guanine)
- leaves an apurinic site(empty spot) on one DNA strand
- DNA replication generates a random base there (often A)
- mutation bc can not go back and fix it once placed
Inherited forms of prion diseases
- Fatal Familial Insomnia
- Sickle Cell Anemia
- Alzheimer’s, huntingtons, parkisons
In proks: how does transcription and translation occur?
- simultaneously
Benign tumor
- Cancerous cells remain localized in the body
- when a cell
Cell cycle checkpoints
- G1/S
- cell monitors its size, determines whether DNA is damaged - G2/M
- processes are monitored prior to mitosis (like DNA replication and repair) - M
- checkpoint occurs during mitosis, spindle fiber formation/attachment to kinetochores monitored.
- Mitosis can be arrested, trigger apoptosis
Attenuation
- Premature termination of transcription
- Yields unstable protein
- Occurs w/ high levels of tryptophan (secondary structure)
RNA Interference
- The process in which the introduction of dsRNA into a cell causes degradation of mRNAs containing the same sequence
Conditional mutation
- only expressed under certain environmental conditions
- present in genome
ex: Temperature sensitive - variable function at different temperatures
Transition
- draw
- Type of base substitution/point mutation
- Like replaces like, purine for a purine, or pyrimidine for pyrimidine
Loss of heterozygosity
- loss of allele
- Occurs when the second wild-type allele is mutated in a tumor
- The cell is no longer heterozygous
- now homo for cancer
- predisposition of inherited cancer expression increases
lac operon: For maximum transcription of the structural genes
- no glucose present
- only lactose
- the repressor must be bound by lactose (to inactivate the repressor)
- CAP must be bound to the CAP-binding site
Start codon of mRNA (AUG) in prokaryotes codes for…
- Modified amino acid
- formylmethionine (fmet)
Differences between prok and euk gene regulation:
- Euk genes are NOT organized into operons
- Chromatin affects gene expression in euks
- Activators are more common in euks than repressors
- Regulation of gene expression has transcriptional activator proteins which bind to DNA in regulatory promoter, interact with other molecules
Euk gene regulation with transcription:
Transcriptional activator proteins:
- Bind to regulatory promoter in DNA
- Interact w/ other components (initiation complex)
- Enhancers/silencers, insulators, MULTIPLE REGULATORY ELEMENTS
P-site
- Peptidyl site on ribosome
- Holds tRNA bound to the growing polypeptide chain
Shine-Dalgarno sequence
- The ribosomal binding site on mRNA for prokaryotic translation
- located upstream of start codon
- A consensus sequence
- The small subunit binds and is positioned here
Kozak sequence
- In eukaryotic translation
- NOT essential in every eukaryote sequence
- When present, is ESSENTIAL for translation initiation on mRNA
- Analogous to Shine-Dalgarno found in prokaryotes mRNA
Biochemical mutation
- Do not always affect morphological characters
- mutation in a biochemical pathway
Ex: sickle-cell anemia, hemophilia
If termination codon appears in middle of mRNA molecule from mutation…?
- Termination occurs, and polypeptide chain is prematurely terminated
Haploinsufficiency
- One copy of a product on a gene is not enough for wild-type phenotype
- Result of loss-of-function mutation
Regulator protein
- Is either a repressor or activator, interacts with the operator to either stop/start transcription
30S initiation complex
- everything in the initiating step (+mRNA, small ribosome)
- attaches to mRNA
- small ribosomal subunit
T/F: some tumor suppressor genes are involved in DNA repair
- true
Catabolite repression
- The inhibition of the lac operon when glucose is present
- glucose causes decline of cAMP
- Positive control
Mutation rate
- How often a mutation will occur in a single generation or in forming a single gamete
- Varies between different organisms & gene to gene
- HOT SPOTS are a sequence in the DNA that appear to be highly susceptibility to mutation
unequal crossing over
- crossing over takes place and ends up adding to one chromosome while deleting from the other
- any areas that are repetitive seem to attract this type of change
Trypotophan levels affect on transcription
- tryptophan levels are high
- attenuation occurs to terminate transcription (i.e. folded secondary structure of 5’ UTR on operon inhibits it) - tryptophan levels are low
- antitermination occurs, production of tryptophan occurs
Different protein structures:
- Primary
- sequence of AA’s - Secondary
- interaction between aa in certain areas of the polypeptide chain
- folds and twists of polypeptides (beta sheets or alpha helix)
- R groups extend outward from the helix - Tertiary
- interaction of secondary structure
- 3D conformation of the entire chain
- level gives the protein its specific function by the way its folded - Quaternary
- 2 or more polypeptides interact
R groups on amino acids
- Yield different characteristics
can cause aa to be:
1. Nonpolar: hydrophobic
2. Polar: Hydrophilic
3. Polar: Positively Charged (Basic, proton acceptor)
4. Polar: Negatively Charged (Acidic, proton donor)
BAX homodimer
- promotes apoptosis
- we make more of this if cell is in trouble
Malignant tumor
- Tumor cell invades other tissues in the body
core promotor
- determines the accurate initiation of transcription by RNA pol II
Barbara McClintock
- discovered transposable elements
- maize
Photoreactivation Repair
- depends on photoreactivation enzyme (PER)
- Enzyme that breaks covalent bonds that link pyrimidine dimers so that normal pairing is restored
- cleaves the bonds between thymine dimers, directly reversing the effect of UV radiation on DNA
- Requires blue light from UV used to excise/ (photon of light) to cleave the dimer
- in E. coli only, humans lack this
SOS repair
- Last resort of DNA repair
- Allows DNA replication to continue WITH errors and lesions (gaps)
- DNA synthesis becomes error-prone (inserting random and possible incorrect nucleotides)
- CAN BE MUTAGENIC
Elongation steps of translation
- Second charged tRNA enters A-site facilitated by EF-Tu; AUG codon passed down to P-site
- Peptide bond formation between AA in P and A, releases AA in P, goes to charged tRNA on A-site, which then moves down; uncharged tRNA moves to E-site then exits
- Translocation: Continued movement of ribosome down mRNA
N terminus vs C Terminus
- N Terminus contains amino group
- 5’ end - C terminus contains carboxyl group
- 3’ end
Where on the tRNA does the amino acid bind to?
- acceptor stem is where tRNA is going to grab aa
- at its 3’ end
Purines vs Pyrimidines
- pairing
- Purines: A and G
- Pyrimidines: C, T, U
- Pairs: A=T and G=C
RISC
RNA-induced silencing complex
- Combines w/ miRNA or siRNA, then binds to mRNA
- if mRNA is complementary, mRNA degradation
- If mRNA isn’t exactly complementary, translation inhibition
Ionizing radiation
- More energetic than UV radiation
- more dangerous bc penetrate deeper causing free radicals can break DNA
Ex: X-rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays
IF-1
- enhances dissociation between small and large ribosomal subunit
- blocks the A site from binding to tRNA
Tautomer/Tautomeric shifts
- different forms of a compound (bases can take on several different forms)
- shifts allow H bonding with non-complementary base pairs which can lead to permanent base pair changes and mutations
- keto enol forms of T and A, amino imino forms of C and G
Ex: multiple forms of a nitrogenous base - diff forms can pair with its wrong complementary base
- unstable form, can jump back to stable form
- if not, results in transition mutation
Directionality of amino acids
- the amino acid group (5’ end of transcript) and the carboxyl group (3’ end) give directionality
- cause hydrogen bonds to form within a polypeptide chain
Vascularization
- The process of angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels)
- the genes to control it are over expressed in tumor cells
- tumor cells need nutrients, so increase in this gives it to them
- Genes that inhibit vascularization become inactivated
What happens with the transposition of Ds element (when accompanied by Ac element, which provides transposase)
- Ds can be inserted in a gene, preventing gene expression.
- Can also jump out of gene during development causing mosiacism (corn ex, spots of color(purple) in a colorless corn!)
Importance of Cap and poly A tail in eukaryotes
- the cap at the 5’ end is critical in the initiation of translation
- small subunit scans for AUG
- cap helps the ribosome get situated
- poly A tail can loop back around and help get ribosome set up on RNA and get it in the right place
RITS
RNA-induced transcription silencing complex
- Targets specific promoters or chromatin regions of DNA
- recruits chromatin remodeling enzymes
- methylation occurs, heterochromatin forms
- transcription inhibited
- TEMPORARILY HALTS GENE EXPRESSION
Jacob and Monod (1961)
- First described the operon model
- Operon is the basic unit of transcription control in bacteria
- Found the lac operon is inducible
Deamination
- An amino group in cytosine or adenine is converted to a keto group (tautomeric shift)
- changes base pairing
- Can occur spontaneously or from chemical mutagens
- alteration in the base pairing specificities of two bases during DNA replication
Ex: HNO2 is a chemical mutagen