Inhertance and Genetics Flashcards
What are nucleosomes made from?
Nucleosomes are made from DNA wrapped around histone proteins
Nucleosomes are the fundamental units of chromatin structure.
What is the function of nucleosomes?
Nucleosomes help to supercoil the DNA and regulate transcription in eukaryotes
This regulation is crucial for gene expression control.
What is the structure of a nucleosome?
A nucleosome consists of 8 histone proteins: 2 each of H2A, H2B, H3, and H4
The nucleosome is often visualized as ‘beads on a string’ of DNA.
What role does H1 play in nucleosomes?
H1 is a linker histone that helps to stabilize the structure of the nucleosome
It binds to the DNA where it enters and exits the nucleosome.
What type of cell would you NOT find nucleosomes?
You would NOT find nucleosomes in prokaryotic cells
Prokaryotes have a simpler structure lacking histone proteins.
How can the modification of the N-terminal tail from the nucleosome regulate gene expression?
Acetylation of the N-terminal tail allows expression, while methylation suppresses it
These modifications alter the interaction of nucleosomes with transcription factors.
What is the composition of eukaryote chromosomes?
Eukaryote chromosomes are linear DNA molecules associated with histone proteins
This structure is essential for DNA packaging and regulation.
What is ‘linker’ DNA?
‘Linker’ DNA refers to the stretch of DNA between nucleosomes
It connects adjacent nucleosomes and is crucial for chromatin organization.
What regulates gene expression?
Gene expression is regulated by proteins that bind to specific base sequences in DNA.
What impacts gene expression?
The environment of a cell and of an organism has an impact on gene expression.
What is imprinting in gene expression?
The epigenome does not get erased completely and results in imprinting.
What is an example of imprinting?
Lions are an example of how the father being a lion still gives the offspring traits linking it to its mother due to imprinting.
Imprinting involves epigenetic tags.
How does methylation affect tumor suppressor genes?
Methylation of tumor suppressor genes can impact their expression.
How does the lac operon in E. coli control gene expression?
In E. coli, the lac operon uses a repressor protein that binds to the promoter region for lactase. The presence of lactose will deactivate the repressor protein and allow production of lactase.
What changes in the E. coli environment cause changes in lactase production?
When lactose is present and glucose is low, glucose destroys the repressor, allowing more lactase production.
What is transcription?
Transcription is the synthesis of mRNA copied from the DNA base sequences by RNA polymerase.