Manipulating Genomes Flashcards
What are the 5 components needed in DNA sequencing?
DNA for sequencing
DNA primer
DNA polymerase
Normal bases
Terminator bases (with fluorescent tag)
What does DNA sequencing do?
Determined the precise order of nucleotides within a DNA molecule
What are the stages of DNA sequencing?
Mix the DNA to be sequenced with the dna primer, DNA polymerase and excess normal and terminator bases
Place in a thermal cycle
95 degrees - break hydrogen bonds and separate strands
50 degrees for primers to anneal
60 degrees for DNA polymerase to work best and add nucleotides to complementary bases
Each time terminator base is added, the chain stops producing many different lengths chains
Separated by electrophoresis or capillary sequencing when fluorescent markers on terminators are used to identify the final base on each fragment
Order of bases produced shows sequence of the complementary strand to the dna sample to work out the original from
What are bioinformatics?
Software and computing tools to organise and analyse raw biological data
What is computational biology?
Use of data to build theoretical models of biological systems and predict what could happen under certain conditions
What are 3 things bioinformatics and computational biology contribute into the research of?
Genotype-phenotype relationships
Epidemiology
Evolutionary relationships
What are 3 things gene sequencing has allowed to happen?
Comparison between individuals and between species
Sequences of amino acids in polypeptides to be predicted
Development of synthetic biology
What is the synthetic biology?
The design and construction of novel artificial biological pathways, organisms or devices
What is DNA profiling?
Produce an image of the patterns in the non coding satellite regions of introns of DNA
How is DNA profiling done?
Extract DNA and perform PCR
Digest sample with restriction endonuclease enzymes
Separate strands by electrophoresis
Hybridisation - adding radioactive or fluorescent probes (short complementary sequences to known sequences)
X-ray or apply UV light depending on probe used to see evidence
What is DNA profiling used for?
Forensics
Comparing dna sample found at crime scene to suspects
Analysis of disease risk
Some micro satellite regions are associated with increased risk of disease, specific gene markers can be identified and observed in DNA profiles to assess the risk
What are the 3 stages of PCR
Separate the strands of DNA by heating to 95 degrees which breaks the hydrogen bonds between bases
Annealing primers, cool to 55 degrees so primers anneal to ends of the strands
Heat to 72 degrees optimum temperature for taq polymerase and bases are added to the primer making complementary strand
Repeat
Why is taq polymerase used?
Taq polymerase is a bacterial DNA polymerase and it has much higher optimum temperature that human DNA Polymerase so does not denature when heated during PCR
What are the uses of PCR?
DNA Profiling
What are the three stages of electrophoresis?
Load DNA fragments into the wells of the agarose gel strips which contain a buffer solution to maintain constant pH
Electric current is passed through electrophoresis plate making fragments at cathode end move towards the anode due to the negative phosphate group
The smaller fragments move further and faster as mesh structure of gel resists the movement of the larger fragments when smallest has reached the end the current is switched off
Southern blotting - alkaline buffet solution is added to denature the fragments and separate the strands. Nylon membrane is placed on top the many dry absorbent paper sheets this draws up alkaline solution by capillary action but dna fragments can’t get through so transferred to the membrane the fixed by UV light or 80 degrees
What do you change in electrophoresis when applying it to a protein?
heat it to denture the protein to expose the hydrophobic region/ expose charges