lecture 7, chapter 8 Flashcards
through ______, organisms adapt to ever-changing environments
natural selection
what are the two general mechanisms that bacteria use to adjust to new circumstances?
regulation of gene expression, genetic change
what is often used as a model system of genetic change?
E. coli
why is E.coli a good model system of genetic change?
it’s easy to grow, inexpensive, rapid accumulation of large numbers
what are the two mechanisms of genetic change in bacteria?
mutation and horizontal gene transfer
what is mutation?
changes in existing nucleotide sequence
what is horizontal gene transfer?
movement of DNA from one organism to another
changes are passed to progeny by _________
vertical gene transfer
changes in organism’s DNA alters _________
genotype
changes in genotype often changes ______
phenotype
phenotype is also known as
observable characteristics
phenotype is also influenced by _______
environmental conditions
genotype is ______
sequence of nucleotides in DNA
the bacteria of a genotype are _____, meaning ______
haploid, there is only one copy with no backup
what does the deletion of gene for tryptophan biosynthesis yield?
a mutant that only grows if tryptophan is supplied
if growth factor is required, mutant is termed ______
auxotroph
auxo means _____
increase
troph means _____
nourishment
proto means _____
first
_______ does not require growth factors
prototroph
geneticists compare mutants to _____
wild type
wild-type E.coli strain is ______
prototroph
what are strains designated by?
three-letter abbreviations
three-letter abbreviation for streptomycin resistance
Str^R
three-letter abbreviation meaning “cannot make tryptophan”
Trp^-
genetic changes that result from normal processes
spontaneous mutations
spontaneous mutations occur ______
randomly at infrequent, but characteristic rates
probability of mutation per cell division
mutation rate
what is the mutation rate typically between for a given gene?
10^-4 to 10^-12
what are mutations passed to?
progeny
mutations are most frequently the result of ______
unrepaired replication errors
what is it called when a mutation occasionally changes back to it’s original state?
reversion
when does reversion occur?
spontaneously at low frequencies
_______ does not cause mutations, but selects cells that grow under its conditions
environment
large populations such as cells in a colony contain _____; not all cells are identical
mutants
what is more likely, a single mutation or a two mutations at the same time?
a single mutation.
single mutations are rare enough, but two mutations at the same time are even more unlikely
why might physicians give two antimicrobial medications simultaneously?
to reduce resistance
an organisms that has mutated to become resistant to an antimicrobial medication will _______
become dominant in an environment where the medication is present
chance that a cell will become resistant to both antimicrobial medications is ________
the product of mutation rate for each gene
what is the most common spontaneous mutation?
base substitution
______ is change of a single base pair
point mutation
what is the following mutation? incorrect nucleotide incorporated during DNA synthesis
base substitution
what are the three possible outcomes of base substitution?
silent (synonymous) mutation, missense mutation, nonsense mutation
silent (synonymous) mutation introduces _______
wild-type amino acid
missense mutation introduces ________
a different amino acid
does the resulting protein of a missense mutation function normally?
No
nonsense mutation specifies _____
stop codon
what does a nonsense mutation yield?
shorter, often non-functional protein
for deletion/addition of nucleotides, what does the impact depend on?
the number of nucleotides involved and location within protein
how many pairs changes one codon?
three
the deletion/addition of one or two pairs results in _____
frameshift mutation