Final Study Guide Flashcards
What are the two nucleic acids?
DNA
RNA
What are the components of a nucleic acid?
Polymers of nucleotides
What are genes?
Regions of DNA that encode a functional RNA or protein
What is the function of DNA?
Storing genetic code
What are the components of a nucleotide?
Nitrgenous base, Pentose Sugar, Phosphate,
What are the two types of nucleotides?
Purines (Larger)
Pyrimidines (Smaller)
What are the 5 nucleotides - which are purines and which are pyrimidines?
Purines - 2 ring:
- Adenine
- Guanine
Pyrimidines - 1 ring:
- Thymine (DNA)
- Uracil (RNA)
- Cytosine
What is a pentose sugar?
What are the two pentose sugars in nucleotides?
Which one is in RNA? DNA?
5 Carbon Sugar
RNA - Ribose
DNA - Dioxyribose
Which nucleotide is only used in DNA? RNA?
DNA - Thyamine
RNA - Uracil
How do the nucleotides pair up?
Adenine - Thymine / Uracile Guanine - Cytosine
(Apples in the Tree or Under, Cars in the Garage)
What holds the two strands of DNA together?
“Zippered” with HYDROGEN BONDS
What are histones? What is chromatin, euchromatin, heterochromatin? What are chromosomes? When are chromosomes present in a cell?
- Histones: Protein that the DNA is wrapped around
- Chromatin: Highly compacted nucleoprotein structure
- Euchromatin: Active chromatin that gets transcribed regularly
- Heterochromatin: Conserved chromatin
- Chromosomes: HIGHLY compacted X shaped chromatin structures - visible only during cell division
DNA/RNA - How many strands does each have?
RNA is SINGLE stranged (doubles back on itself to pair)
DNA is a double stranded in a helix
DNA/RNA - Which pentose sugar is found in each?
RNA - Ribose
DNA - Deoxyribose
DNA/RNA - Which nucleic acid has multiple forms?
RNA
DNA/RNA - Which nucleotide is unique to each?
RNA - Uracil, DNA - Thymine
DNA/RNA - Which may have enzymatic activity?
RNA - these are known as ribozymes
What are the three types of RNA we studied? What is the function of each?
- mRNA - messenger RNA, blueprint for proteins
- rRNA - Forms structural component of Ribosomes (w/ proteins)
- tRNA - Worker molecules that bring amino acids to ribosome for protein synthesis
What is the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology? What is the order of the flow of biological information?
The transfer of sequential information —
DNA -> RNA -> Protein
What is the enzyme that synthesizes daughter DNA strands in the process of DNA replication?
DNA Polymerase
What is transcription? What enzyme performs transcription?
Reading the DNA nucleotides and assembling a new piece of RNA based on the instruction in the DNA (Happens in the NUCLEUS), and by RNA Polymerase
What is translation? What structure performs translation?
Turning the RNA into a protein, leaves the nucleus and goes to the Ribosomes which assembles the protein
What is tRNA? What is its function?
tRNA is transfer RNA, carries amino acid and matches its anticodon to the mRNA codon to assemble the protein
Know the structure of chromosomes: chromatids, centromere, telomere, etc.
- Chromosome: Two strands of chromatin called chromatids, highly compacted
- Centromere: connects them
- Telomere: End cap