Lecture 1 - Central Dogma Flashcards
Characteristics of DNA?
-Double stranded
-ATCG nucleotides
-Deoxyribose sugar in backbone
-carries coding information to make RNA
-Not catalytic
Characteristics of RNA?
-Single stranded
-AUCG nucleotides
-ribose as sugar in backbone
-carries protein-encoding information
-can be catalytic
What bonds are nucleotides held together by?
Hydrogen bonds
What is a base pair?
Correlating nucleotides for DNA and RNA: CGAT in DNA = GCUA in RNA
What is DNA packaged around so that it can be tightly wound into chromatin?
Histones
What is a gene?
Segment of DNA that encodes a function
DNA contains the instructions for every protein in the body
What are the 5’ and 3’ Untranslated Regions (UTR)?
5’ is where transcription starts, and 3’ is where transcription ends
Where is the promoter region located?
Upstream from the coding sequence
Definition
Positive control
Something must bind in order for the gene to turn on, otherwise the gene is “off”
Definition
Negative control
Gene is always “on” unless something binds to the promoter
How many chromosomes do humas have?
46 chromosomes, or 23 pairs
Diploid
two copies of each chromosome
Haploid
one copy of each chromosome
Homologous Chromosomes
1 maternal copy, and 1 paternal copy of each chromosome to form a diploid zygote
Genotype
Specific DNA sequence of an allele, gene, cell, or organism (Bb; each letter represents an allele)
Phenotype
Physical characteristic/expression of the genotype (ex: brown hair)
Single nucleotide polymorphism
Genes differ by one base
Wild type allele
The allele that encodes the phenotype most common in a particular natural population
Mutated allele
Any allele not known as the wild type
