Lecture 1 Flashcards
What did Frederick Griffith study in 1928? And what did he do in order to study it?
The Streptococcus pneumoniae, a pathogenic bacterium causing pneumonia.
He infected mice with these strains hoping to understand the difference between the strains
How many strains of Streptococcus are there?
There are 2 strains:
1. S strain - virulent
2. R strain - nonvirulent
(virulent - extremely severe or harmful in its effects.)
What was the result of Griffith’s experiment?
- Live R strain cells didn’t kill the mice
- Live S strain cells killed the mice
- Heat-killed S strain cells did not kill the mice
- Heat-killed S strain + live R strain killed the mice
What did Griffith conclude from the mice experiment? And what did he call the result?
He concluded that information specifying virulence got passed from the dead S strain to the live R strain cells
He called the transfer of this information Transformation
After using purified cell extracts in the grifith experiment what did they find
The transforming material is DNA
DNA structure
phosphodiester bond
Bond between adjacent
nucleotides. Formed between the phosphate group of one nucleotide and the 3’ –OH of the next nucleotide. Chain contains 5’ to 3’ orientation
Who found the amounts of the four bases on DNA and what are those amounts (Thymine, adenine, guanine and cystosine)
Erwin Chargaff
A:30.7%
G:30.7%
C:19.7%
T:19.7%
Who identified the 3D structure of DNA, what is it shape and the diameter and length to form a complete turn of the helix?
Franklin Rosalind and Maurice Wilkins
Shape is helical
2nm diameter, 3.4nm for complete turn
Whoo built the first DNA model using Franklin’s x-ray’s?
Watson and Crick in 1953
The two strands of DNA are ________
and are one orientated ____ the other ______
The wrap around each other in a ______ shape
Anti-parallel
orientated 5’ to 3’the other 3’ to 5’
helical shape
How many base pairs in a complete turn,
Name of left twisted Dna.
Where do hotspots occur
10 base pairs
Z-DNA or southpaw
When Right sided and Left sided DNA meet (Forms mutations)
4 requirements for DNA to be genetic material?
- Must carry information
- Must replicate
- Must allow for exchange of information
- Must govern the expression of phenotype
Information stored in the bases of DNA
Only accesible when DNA is unwound (Very rarely can find info in double strand DNA)
Proteins read the DNA sequence as DNA helix unwinds. Either bind to DNA sequence or copies it.
Some proteins recognize the base sequence of DNA without unwinding it (Restriction enzyme)
DNA replication
Copied before cell divides during the synthesis phase of interphase. New cells need Identical DNA strands. Replication is extremely accurate.
E.coli replicates at 1000 neucleotides/sec
Eukaryotes are slower in replication for higher accuracy
Purpose of DNA replication
Cells need to make a copy of DNA before dividing so each daughter cell has a complete copy of genetic information
What are the 3 proposed methods of DNA replication
Semiconservative, conservative and dispersive
Meselson-Stahl experiment. What is it and what method was proven?
Semi-conservative method
Basic rules of replication
Semi-conservative
Starts at the ‘origin’
Synthesis always in the 5-3’ direction
Can be uni- or bidirectional
Semi-discontinuous
RNA primers required