First Pass Miss Exam 3 Flashcards
What are the three most common bases to methylate?
- 5-methylcytidine
- N6-methyladenosine
- 5-hydroxymethylcytidine
What are the tautomeric forms of DNA?
A/C - amino -> imino (doublebond to N)
T/G - lactam -> lactim (doublebond from O to adjacent N, making an alcohol)
What is the most common wrong base pairing?
A = C, in cytosine’s imino form.
What is the only form of left-handed DNA?
Z form. B form is regular with 10.5 bp per turn, and 3.4 A rise per nucleotide = 36 A per turn
Name two antibiotics that target topoisomerases?
- Nalidixic acid
2. Ciprofloxacin
What is doxorubicin?
anti-cancer drug targeting type 1 topoisomerase.
What histone mediates nucleosome packing?
Histone H1. Their genes are organized into clusters.
What is needed to break down DNA fibers and loops on a nuclear scaffold?
Type 2 topoisomerase - normally used to break up catenanes, which are a production of bacterial DNA replication
What is the telomere sequence?
TTAGGG
What enzymes are involved in homologous recombination?
- Endonuclease to introduce single-strand nicks and allow for strand invasion
- RecA - requires strand invasion + branch migration = large homologous swap
- Resolvase - an endonuclease to break the 3D Holliday structure
- DNA ligase
What is the function of the enzymes involved in site-specific recombination?
excisionases + integrases, which can add or remove DNA at specific att sites (attachment sites)
Why is site-specific combination important immunologically?
It is the way in which antibiotic diversity is made
What is the difference between transposons with long terminal repeats vs short inverted repeats?
Short - encodes only transposase (an integrase), simple transposon
Long - encodes both transpose + a reverse transcriptase to make a new DNA copy. Also has a very long promoter included
What is exon shuffling?
The process by which two transposons flank an exon, and the transposase accidentally cuts out the exon and puts it in another gene, giving that gene a new protein domain
What is the Alu sequence?
A short inverted repeat transposon which requires an external reverse transcriptase. Makes up about 5% of our genome, originated from the 7SL RNA gene, a signal recognition peptide
What is the L1 transposon?
transposon making up 4% of our genome
What are the two types of spontaneous mutagenesis? Relative frequency?
- Deamination - about 100 C-U events per day
2. Depurination - 10000 per day, mostly guanine
What are the deamination reactions?
C->U
5-meC -> T
A -> HX
G -> X
Where is oxidation of nucleotides most common?
In mitochondria
What is the mechanism of action of mustard gas?
Hydroxylates the lactim form of guanine
What enzymes are involved in the methylation mismatch repair system in E.Coli?
MutH - nicks the hemimethylated DNA as it recognizes the 6-methylA on GATC sequence
MutS/MutL - complexes which bind the mismatch site and pull together until a MutH reaches, after which exonuclease will rip out this pace and reform
What enzyme is primarily involved in base-exicision repair?
DNA glycosylase, to remove defective base.
Then endonuclease opens, DNA poly I replaces, DNA ligase seals
What are the main subunits of E. coli RNA polymerase?
beta - catalytic
beta prime - DNA binding
alpha - binds upstream promoter which is not always present
sigma - directs polymerase to a specific promoter around -10 that is rich in T’s and A’s, leaves when the complex is “open” that is DNA is opened
What is rho-independent termination?
Termination via hairpin loop, as polymerase is slowed from C-G rich region
What is rho dependent termination?
Rho is a hexameric helicase which binds the mRNA transcript at a speicifc site and pulls itself via ATP up into the RNA polymerase active site
What is the primary RNA polymerase in eukaryotes?
RNA polymerase II
What are the important proteins required for Pol II function?
Pol II - the RNA polymerase catalytic subunit
TBP - binds the TATA box (binding protein) at around -30, induces a sharp bend in the DNA as a molecular saddle
TFIIH - Transcription factor 2 helicase - unwinds the DNA in the active site. Also a kinase which phosphorylates the carboxy terminal of Pol II for activation
How is the 5’ cap made?
Addition of 7-methylguanosine to 5’ nucleotide in RNA transcript, via adding GMP to a NDP, then methylating via SAM. Methyl groups can also be added to the next couple 2’ hydroxyls via SAM.
What is a group 1 intron?
Self splicing -> external GTP attacks the 5’ splice site
What is a group 2 intron?
Self-splicing w/ ribozyme - 2’ OH of an adenine at a “branch site” starts the reaction at 5’ splice site
What is a spliceosome?
Complex which uses small nuclear RNA’s + proteins in higher eukaroytes to carry out the group II mechanism.
What 3 complexes are involved in polyadenylation?
- Upstream - sees polyadenylation signal
- Downstream - sees G/U downstream element, bends between this site and upstream
- Cleavage / polyadenylation site - between 1/2, adds the tail at the bent site
What is the functional difference between alternative cleavage / polyadenylation patterns and alternative splicing patterns?
Alternative cleavage / polyA - multiple polyA cleavage sites downstream the gene
Alternative splicing - multiple 3’ splice sites
What is the function of the CRP protein in the lac operon?
Binds the CRP site upstream the lac operon when glucose is low and cAMP is high (cAMP-Reactive Protein). This functions to recruit the RNA polymerase. Makes sure the lac operon is not on if there is enough glucose but the lac repressor is not binding the lac operators (O1-O3) because there is enough allolactose in the cell.
Where does homeodomain bind?
DNA in its major groove, via helix-turn-helix.
What amino acid are leucine zippers rich in to bind DNA?
Lysine + arginine in the DNA binding region for their + charge.
What are the three domains of the zinc fingers? Which is highly conserved?
- Hormone binding
- DNA binding - highly conserved with two zincs complexed to histidines or cysteines.
- RNA polymerase II transcription activating