L10 - Protein Synthesis Flashcards
Describe the process of transcription.
1) RNA polymerase breaks apart the DNA strands
2) Single strand of mRNA is transcribed from the template strand using the base-pair rule
3) In mRNA the nuclease T is substituted by U
4) Required nucleotides for mRNA synthesis are found freely in the nucleus
What is a requirement of Pre-mRNA?
- Pre-mRNA is not in its final form
- Pre-mRNA requires a 5’ cap
What is the Pre-mRNA cap composed of, and how is it attached?
- Composed of phosphorylated 7-methyl guanosine
- It is added to the 5’ end of the mRNA by guanyltransferase
Why is Pre-mRNA capping necessary?
- Ensures mRNA is exported out of the nucleus
- Blocks degradation of mRNA by 5’ exonucleases
- Promotes translation
What is a second requirement of Pre-mRNA?
Needs a 3’ poly-A-tail
Describe the process of polyadenylation of Pre-mRNA.
- Pre-mRNA is cleaved by an endonuclease near a signal AAUAAA sequence at the 3’ end
- Approx. 200 adenosine residues are added at the cleavage site by poly-A-polymerase
What does the poly-A-tail do?
- Poly-A-tail protects the mRNA from degradation by 3’ exonucleases
- Poly-A-tail also aids in termination of transcription, ensures export from the nucleus and is important in translation
What is a third and final requirement of Pre-mRNA before it becomes mature mRNA?
- Pre-mRNA contains exons and introns
- Introns need to be spliced out to produce the final mRNA
What are exons?
Sequences which code for proteins
What are introns?
Sequences which do not code for proteins
Describe the entire process Pre-mRNA undergoes before becoming mature mRNA.
1) Addition of a 5’ cap
2) Cleavage near signal AAUAAA sequence at the 3’ end
3) Addition of 3’ poly-A-tail
What can alternative splicing do?
Alternative splicing of the pre-mRNA sequence can produce different proteins from the same gene.
What does mature mRNA consist of?
- 5’ cap
- 5’ UTR (Untranslated Region)
- Coding Region (to be translated into a protein)
- 3’ UTR (Untranslated Region)
- Poly-A-tail
What is initiation?
- Binding of the ribosome to 5’ end of mRNA
and - Hydrogen binding of the anticodon of an amino acylated tRNA carrying methionine on the AUG start codon
What is elongation?
Addition of further amino acids to the growing polypeptide chain, brought by corresponding amino acylated tRNAs
(Peptidyl transferase creates covalent peptide bonds between the amino acids)
What is termination?
When the stop codon (UAG, UAA, UGA) is reached and the peptide and ribosomal subunits are released.
What do proteins consist of?
Amino acids covalently linked into a polypeptide chain.
Name the 2 small amino acids.
- Alanine (Ala)
- Glycine (Gly)
Name the 3 nucleophilic amino acids.
- Serine (Ser)
- Threonine (Thr)
- Cysteine (Cys)
Name the 5 hydrophobic amino acids.
- Valine (Val)
- Leucine (Leu)
- Isoleucine (Ile)
- Methionine (Met)
- Proline (Pro)