Final Flashcards
Three properties of DNA
- Accurate replication
- Have info with instructions to encode for proteins
- Be able to change (rarely) so that it results in hereditary changes/mutations
What is purines made of
Adenine and Guanine
(Pure as gold)
What is Pyrimidines made of
Cytosine and Thymine
(C(U)T) the py (pie)
Phosphate of DNA binds to what?
5’ position of CH2 deoxyribose sugar
Where is the OH located on the deoxyribose sugar?
3’ position
Base pairing
A+G = T+C
A=T; G=C
Base pairing practice
If G+C of a double-stranded DNA is 48%, what is the percentage of ‘A’ in this DNA molecule
Since G+C= 48% we can find A+T
A+T= 100% - 48% = 52%
Since we know A=T we divide 52% by 2 to find A and T individually
52%/2 = 26%
Therefore A is 26%
Complementary base pairs (Chargaff’s Rule)
A-T and G-C
the sugar of DNA binds to what?
3’ end
the phosphate of DNA binds to what?
5’ end
How is DNA replicated?
Semi-conservative replication
What is semi-conservative replication?
when parental DNA strands unwind and combine for synthesis of new complementary strand
What produces energy to help DNA synthesis?
cleaving of pyrophosphate
what makes up dNTP (Deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate)?
3 phosphates, sugar group, one nucleotide
What is the first step of DNA replication?
DNA gyros relaxes DNA helices and rejoins strands
(makes sure DNA is not coiled)
What is the second step of DNA replication?
Helices distrupts H bonds thus unwinding helices
(ssB= ssDNA binding proteins that stabilizes unwound DNA)
What is the third step of DNA replication?
RNA polymerase synthesizes primers. Primers synthesize (in 5-3) RNA primers using DNA as template.
(Creates binding site for DNA Pol III)
What is the fourth step of DNA replication?
DNA Polymerase III catalyzes synthesis of DNA (starts at 3’ end of primer)
What is the fifth step of DNA replication
DNA polymerase I removes RNA primers and fills in gaps
What is the sixth step of DNA replication?
DNA ligase connects adjacent DNA fragments
why is DNA replication semi-discontinuous?
The lagging strand needs to be synthesized in small sections.
(DNA Pol III bind to RNA primers and synthesizes Okazaki strands. DNA ligase needs to connect adjacent DNA fragments)
what does the OH on the sugar do to the triphosphate?
a nucleophilic attack on an incoming nucleotide so that it can bind to it
what are PCRs? (Polymerase chain reaction)
a method of amplifying DNA
(ex. forensics)
What is the first component for PCRs?
Isolated genomic DNA (like from hair) to act as template DNA
What is the second component for PCRs?
Multiple copies of DNA primers.
- approx 20 nucleotides long WITH FREE OH GROUP
- reverse and forward primers always written in 5-3
what is the third component for PCRs?
dNTPS (dATP, dGTP, dCTP, dTTP)
- provides single bases (A, G, C, T)
What is the fourth component for PCRs
Taq polymerase (special DNA polymerase
- acts as DNA POL III
- Synthesis in 5-3 direction
- active at high temps over multiple cycles of heating and cooling
PCR step one
Denaturation of DNA via heating
PCR step two
Annealing of primers onto appropriate locations on template via cooling
PCR step three
Tax polymerase binds to primers for synthesis of DNA via heating (adds to 3’ end)
what determines annealing temperature?
depends on melting point (mp) of primers. temp should be lower than mp
What determines melting point of PCRs?
- melting point is when 50% of primers are bound and 50% of primers aren’t bound
- more GC = higher temp
- longer dna = higher temp
what is the difference between DNA Pol I and DNA Pol III?
DNA Pol I removes RNA primers and fills in gaps
DNA Pol III synthesizes DNA
designing forward and reverse primers
- Forward primers is always the same as the top strand (from 5’ end)
- the reverse primers is the compliment of the top strands (from 3’ end and backwards)
what is gel electrophoresis
method used to separate DNA (or RNA and proteins) molecules based on their sizes by using electrical field to move molecules through gel matrix
what is agarose primers?
used to make ‘gel’ to separate DNA
what DNA molecules will travel quickly through the gel matrix?
small DNA molecules because they have lower molecular weight
what DNA molecules will travel slower through the gel matrix?
larger DNA molecules bc it has higher molecular weight
why do we stain DNA in gel electrophoresis?
- to see DNA under UV light bc DNA is colourless
what are molecular ladders?
DNA pieces with known sizes to help determine size of DNA samples
What are SNPs?
single base pair difference between DNA sequences (can be transition or transvehrsion)
what is transition?
replaces pyrimidine with pyrimidine
replaced purine with purine
what is transversion
replaces purine with a pyrimidine or vice versa
what is spontaneous DNA replication error?
- a cause of SNPs
- mismatching
- can be caused by tautomerization
what is tautomerization?
changes in position of a base’s atoms and bonds between atoms
how are mismatched errors repaired?
- by the DNA Pol III or I
- remove mis-paired bases by working backwards (3-5) (3-5 exonuclease activity)
- if mistake is still there, its usually repaired by other DNA repair mechanism
what is “other chemical changes to nucleotide?”
- a cause of SNPs
- can be caused by depurination or deamination
what is depurination?
- loss of purine base
- can cause polymerase to stop or add random base
(phosphate and sugar backbone still intact)
what is deamination?
removal of amine groups (cytosine, adenine, and guanine)
what are insertion-deletions (Indels)?
- insertion or deletion of bases
(Deletion of bases results in no frameshift) - can result in non-repetitive indels (point mutations) or STRs (short tandem repeats of 2-9 nucleotide)
what is point mutation?
single base pair being added, deleted, or changed (SNPs)
More info about STRs?
- also called micro satellites- repeated region could be exon, intron, regulatory regions, nonfunctional DNA sequences
- high mutation rates
what is slippage?
when a CAG repeat folds in and causes right side (of CAG) to be repeated since it fell backwards
what os the sufferance between dideoxynucleoside and deoxynuclooside?
Dideoxy has H on the 3’ position while Deoxy has OH on 3’ position
How is PCR different from Sanger Sequencing?
- PCR results in exponential amplification (sequencing does not)
- one primer is needed in Sanger
(PCR needs 2) - Sanger needs ddNTPS and dNTPs
In Sanger sequencing, which base is always causes the termination of synthesis?
In T tube: T
In C tube: C
In G tube: G
In A tube: A
how are RNA and DNA different (structurally?)
- RNA sugar has OH on the 2’ carbon while DNA has H on the 2’
- RNA has U (no CH3 group) and DNA has T
(thymine is more stable)
what direction does RNA synthesize in?
5’ to 3’ direction
what direction does the RNA polymerase reads the template strand? (in RNA transcription elongation)
3’-5’ direction
Newly synthesized RNA is made in what direction?
5’-3’ direction
What does the RNA polymerase do
- unwinds about 17bp of DNA
- catalyzes RNA synthesis
what does upstream mean
The region that is closer to the 5’
what does downstream mean
the region towards the 3’ end
what happens in RNA transcription?
- The DNA has regulatory sequences (enhancer/silencer, promoter), UTRs, exons, and introns
- Splicing splices off all regulatory proteins leaving only start/stop codons, exons, introns, UTRs and terminator. (Turns into pre-mRNA)
What happens during RNA translation?
- introns gets splices out leaving only exons, UTRs, and terminator
- then gets turned into protein
How does the RNA know where the introns are to splice them off?
- the spliceosome recognizes specific nucleotide sequence at exon and intron junctions
- Introns begins with GU and end with AG
at what position/site does transcription start?
+1 site
what is the non-template strand?
- sense or coding strand
- 5’-3’
what is the template strand?
- antisense or noncoding strand
- 3’-5’
Where is the TATA box and what does it do?
- positions -25 to -35
- positions the RNA polymerase for initiation of transcription
what is quantitative PCR?
- method of PCR allowing us to quantify the amount of DNA in sample (by using fluorescent dye)
- used for COVID19 testing
what is CT?
amount of cycles needed to pass the threshold
what does low CT value mean?
More DNA is present bc it takes less cycles
what does high CT value mean?
Less DNA is present bc it takes more cycles
what forms between amino acids?
peptide bonds
(genetic code) what does it mean when codes are degenerate?
- multiple codons encode the same amino acid
- helps buffer against transition SNPs
N terminal on a protein does what?
- amino group
- synthesize first
C terminal of a protein does what?
- carboxyl group
- synthesize last
what are tRNAs?
- act as adaptors (or links) between mRNA and amino acids
- has anticodon loop (3’-5’)
- animo acid attached to 3’ end
what does aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase do?
its an enzyme that attaches amino acids to tRNAs