MCAT Quicksheets Biochemistry Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What are the Nonpolar, nonaromatic amino acids?

A
Glycine 
Alanine
Valine
Leucine 
Isoleucine 
methionine 
proline
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the positively charged amino acids?

A

Arginine
Lysine
Histidine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What are the negatively charged amino acids?

A

Aspartic acid

Glutamic acid

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are the polar amino acids?

A
Serine
Theronine 
Cysteine
Aspargine 
Glutamine
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What are the amino acids with aromatic side chains?

A

tryptophan
phenylalanine
tyrosine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What amino acid is achiral?

A

Glycine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What amino acid does not have (S) configuration?

A

cysteine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

At low pH, amino acids are?

A

fully protonated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

At neutral pH, amino acids are?

A

Zwitterions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

At high pH, amino acids are?

A

fully deprotonated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What do enzymes do?

A

change the rate (kinetics) at which equillibrium is reached

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Enzymes DO NOT?

A

alter the free energy or the enthalpy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What are ligases?

A

responsible for joining two large biomolecules, often at the same time

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What are Isomerases?

A

They catalyze the interconversion of isomers, including both constitutional and stereoisomers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Lyases are?

A

Enzymes that catalyze cleavage without the addition of water and without the transfer of electrons.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Hydrolases are?

A

Enzymes that catalyze cleavage with addition of water

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Oxidoreductases are?

A

Enzymes that catalyze oxidation-reduction reactions that involve transfer of electrons

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Transferases are?

A

Enzymes that move a functional group from one moleucule to another

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What type of reaction is peptide bond formation?

A

a condensation (dehydration) reaction where nucleophilic amino group attacks the electrophilic carbonyl.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Peptide bonds are broken via?

A

hydrolysis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Primary structure of proteins is?

A

the linear sequence of amino acids

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Secondary structure is?

A

local structure, stablized by hydrogen bonding

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

alpha helices and beta sheets are located in what structural level?

A

Secondary structure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Tertiary structure is?

A

three-dimensional structure stablized by hydrophobic interactions, acid-base interactions (salt bridges), hydrogen bonding and disulfide bonds

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

Quaternary structure is?

A

interactions between subunits

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

Motor proteins are?

A

capable of force generation through a conformational change.

Myosin, Kinesin and dyenein are examples

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

Bind proteins?

A

bind a specific substrate either to sequester it in the body or hold it’s concentration at a steady state

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

Cell adhesion molecules (CAM) do what?

A

bind cells to other surfaces

cadherins, integrins and selectins are examples

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

Antibodies, often referred to as ______________ target?

A

immunoglobulins

target specific antigens, which could be a protein on the surface of a pathogen or a toxin

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

Ion channels are used for?

A

regulating ion flow into or out of a cell

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

There are 3 main types of ion channels-what are they?

A

Ungated channels
Voltage-gated channels
ligand-gated channels

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

What are Enzyme-linked receptors do?

A

they participate in cell signaling through extra cellular ligand binding and initiation of secondary messenger cascades

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

G protein coupled receptors are?

A

membrane bound proteins associated with a trimeric G protein which initiate secondary messenger systems.

34
Q

3-carbon sugars are referred to as ___________, while 4-carbon sugars are referred to as _______.

A

3-carbon sugars are referred to as trioses, while 4-carbon sugars are referred to as tetraoses.

35
Q

Aldoses are sugars with?

A

the most oxidized group being aldehydes

36
Q

Ketoses are sugars with?

A

The most oxidized group being ketones

37
Q

What makes a sugar a D-sugar?

A

sugars with the highest numbered chiral carbon with the -OH group on the right in a Fisher projection are D-sugars

38
Q

D- and L- forms of sugars are?

A

enantiomers

39
Q

Diastereomers differ?

A

by at LEAST one-but not all chiral carbons

40
Q

__________ describes the ring formation of carbohydrates from their straight-chain forms.

A

Cyclization

41
Q

What is the anomeric carbon?

A

the new chiral center formed in a ring closure

-it was the carbon containing the carbonyl in the straigh form

42
Q

What is a monosaccharide?

A

single carbon units

43
Q

What are the 3 main reactions that occur to monosaccharides?

A

oxidation-reduction
esterification
glycoside formation

44
Q

Sugars with an -H replacing the -OH group are referred to as?

A

deoxy sugars

45
Q

What are some common disaccharides?

A

sucrose, lactose and maltose

46
Q

What is the main polysaccharide structural component of plant cell walls, and is the main source of fiber in the human diet?

A

Cellulose

47
Q

What is the main polysaccharide energy storage for plants?

A

Starches (amylose and amylopectin)

48
Q

What polysaccharide is the main energy storage form for animals?

A

Glycogen

49
Q

Five carbon sugars bonded to a nitrogenous base are called?

A

nucleosides

50
Q

Nucleosides with one to three phosphate groups added are called?

A

Nucleotides

51
Q

ATP’s structure is?

A

a high energy nucleotide with an adensine nuceloside attached

52
Q

In DNA nucleotides contain ____________ while in RNA they contain _______.

A

DNA=Doxyribose

RNA=ribose

53
Q

The DNA backbone is composed of?

A

alternating sugar and phosphate groups.

54
Q

Within the double helix, two strands are woven with?

A

antiparallel polarity

55
Q

What is Chargaff’s rule?

A

purines (A and G) and pyrimidines (C, U, and T) are always in equal number in DNA.

Amount of A = Amount of T
Amount of C= Amount of G

56
Q

DNA strands after being denatured can be put back together in a process called?

A

reannealing

57
Q

Nucleosomes are?

A

DNA wound around histone proteins and form the nucleosome

58
Q

What are the histones that DNA is wound around in eukaryotes?

A

H2A, H2B, H3 and H4

59
Q

Heterochromatin is?

A

dense, transcriptionally silent DNA

60
Q

Euchromatin is?

A

less dense, transcriptionally active DNA

61
Q

Telomeres are located where?

What keeps them from unravelling?

A

At the end of chromosomes-high CG content prevents them from unraveling

62
Q

What do centromeres do?

A

Hold sister chromatids together until they are separated during anaphase in mitosis

*also have high C-G content

63
Q

What enzyme unwinds the double helix during replication?

A

helicase

64
Q

DNA’s semiconservative replication means that?

A

the old parent strand and new daughter stand are incorporated into each of the new DNA molecules

65
Q

The leading strand of DNA requires ________ and then can be synthesized continously.

A

one primer

66
Q

The lagging strand of DNA requires ___________ and is synthesized in discrete sections called Okazki Fragments.

A

Many primers

67
Q

_________ _________ introduced a fragment of DNA into a vector plasmid.

A

DNA cloning

68
Q

What cuts the vector plasmid and the DNA fragment in DNA cloning?

A

a restriction endocnuclease

69
Q

Which library can be used for recombinate proteins and gene therapy?

Genomic Libraries or cDNA libraries

A

cDNA libraries can be used for recombinate proteins and gene therapy

70
Q

What is hybridization?

A

joining of complementary base pair sequences

71
Q

What is PCR (polymerase chain reaction)?

A

automated process which millions of copies of DNA sequence can be created from a very small sample by hybridization

72
Q

How can DNA molecules be separated by size?

A

using agarose gel electrophoresis

73
Q

Southern Blotting is used for?

A

used to detect the presence and quantity of various DNA strands in a sample

74
Q

deoxyribonucleotides are used in DNA sequencing because?

A

they lack the 3’-OH group which terminates the DNA chain

75
Q

What is the initiation code for DNA?

A

AUG

76
Q

What are the termination codes for DNA?

A

UGA, UAA, UAG

77
Q

What are two things that allow mutations to occur within the DNA without affecting the protein?

A

Redundancy and wobble

78
Q

What are the different types of point mutations?

A

Silent mutations
Nonsense mutations
Missense mutations
Frameshift mutations

79
Q

Slient Mutations have no?

A

effect on protein synthesis

80
Q

Nonsense mutation are?

A

mutations that produce a premature stop codon

81
Q

Missense mutations are?

A

mutations that produce a codon that codes for a different amino acid

82
Q

Frameshift mutations are?

A

mutations which result from nucleotide addition or deletion and change the reading frame of subsequent codons