Microbial genetics Flashcards
What are microbes often exploited as by geneticists and biochemists ?
Model systems.
What are microbes often exploited as by geneticists and biochemists ?
Model systems.
What can you perform easily on microbes?
Mutant screens.
What are three advantages in using microbes to study model systems?
- Reproduce rapidly.
- Cheap to maintain and cultivate.
- Large number of individual cells.
Why can the mutant phenotype be seen immediately when studying microbes?
They are haploid.
What are the genome sizes of Mycroplasm, Ecoli and yeast?
Genetic manipulation, such as gene knockouts are not straightforward in microbes. True or false?
False.
From a microbiologists perspective, what are 5 reasons to study microbial genetics?
- Ecology.
- Cell biology.
- Pathogenicity.
- Evolution.
- Biotechnology.
What is the classical genetic approach also known as?
The forward approach.
What are the six steps of the classical/ forward approach?
- Random genome wide mutagenesis.
- Phenotypic screening.
- Biochemical/ physical extraction of mutants.
- Genetic analysis.
- Gene isolation.
- Gene sequence determination.
What are the six steps of the classical/ forward approach?
- Random genome wide mutagenesis.
- Phenotypic screening.
- Biochemical/ physical extraction of mutants.
- Genetic analysis.
- Gene isolation.
- Gene sequence determination.
What can you perform easily on microbes?
Mutant screens.
What are three advantages in using microbes to study model systems?
- Reproduce rapidly.
- Cheap to maintain and cultivate.
- Large number of individual cells.
Is it always possible to find all the related genes for the phenotype in the classical approach?
No.
What are the genome sizes of Mycroplasm, Ecoli and yeast?
Genetic manipulation, such as gene knockouts are not straightforward in microbes. True or false?
False.
From a microbiologists perspective, what are 5 reasons to study microbial genetics?
- Ecology.
- Cell biology.
- Pathogenicity.
- Evolution.
- Biotechnology.
What is the classical genetic approach also known as?
The forward approach.
Through answering the question ‘What genes make an organism pathogenic?’ Are you using forward or reverse genetics?
Forward.
What are the six steps of the classical/ forward genetic approach?
- Random genome wide mutagenesis.
- Phenotypic screening.
- Biochemical/ physical extraction of mutants.
- Genetic analysis.
- Gene isolation.
- Gene sequence determination.
Can you find mutants with defects in essential genes in the classical method?
Yes.
Apart from being able to find defects in essential genes, what is another advantage of using the forward/ classical pathway when studying microbial genetics?
The empathies is on the desired phenotype.
Is the classical genetic approach slow?
Yes.
Is it always possible to find all the related genes for the phenotype in the classical approach?
No.
How would you describe reverse genetics?
Gene to biological function.
How was the reverse genetic method historically done?
Protein product used to find gene in the library via N terminal sequence ( defect colonies whose DNA hybridises to a degenerate oglionucleotide probe.)
How were most cell cycle genes discovered?
Conditional mutants.
What is now available to be used in reverse genetics?
The entire microbial sequence.
What does modern reverse genetics focus on?
One gene of a particular interest (e.g. it may have homology to a known gene in another microbe.)
In reverse genetics the role of each gene is often asked. What three steps allow this to be answered?
- DNA mutated in vitro.
- Substitute the mutated DNA for the WT.
- Determine the phenotype of the resulting mutant strain.
What allows genes to be defined to a particular function?
Mutants.
What can mutants allow the accumulation of?
Intermediates.
What do allow regulatory mutants allow?
The definition of regulatory proteins and there site of actin in the DNA.
What is the permissive temperature for E.coli?
30 degrees.
What is the restrictive temperature for E.coli?
42 degrees.
Why is the mutant phenotype expressed in conditional mutants at the higher temperature?
Often because of missense mutations which destabilise the protein structure.
What time of mutation does tautorism cause?
Transition.
What was shown in the 1980’s in regards to CDNA?
That complementation may be possible from a cloned gene of another species.
Where is the cdc2 gene found?
S.pombe.
Where is the CDC28 gene found?
S.cerevisiae.
Where is CDC2 found?
Humans.
What are the 8 types of mutations?
- Point.
- Insertions.
- Deletions.
- DNA rearrangements.
- Transposon mediated mutations.
- Epigenetic mutations.
- Chromosome translocations.
- Chromosome loss.
Increasing in complexity and severity.
What is base tautorism an example of?
A point mutation.
What is base tautorism?
When a base is changed by the repositioning of a hydrogen ion thus altering the position of the hydrogen bond. This results in incorrect base pairing in replication.
What is an imino tautorism?
A-C.
What is an enrol tautorism?
T-G.
What time of mutation does tautorism cause?
Transition.
What is described below?
Hydrolysis changes a normal base to a atypic base containing a keto group instead of an amino group.
Spontaneous deamination.
What example of spontaneous deamination is easily spotted by DNA repair mechanisms and why?
C-U and HX.
Uracil is not normally found in DNA.
What example of spontaneous deamination is not easily spotted by DNA repair mechanisms?
5MeC -T
Thymine is already in DNA so this is less easily detected.
What results in slipped strand mispairing?
Local denaturation of hydrogen bonds.
When does slipped strand mispairing happen?
When there is a run of identical codons.
What does slipped strand mispairing result in?
A new strand longer than the parent strand and a frame shift.
What is used in some pathogenic bacteria to switch expression of surface proteins meaning they can evade the immune system?
Slipped strand mispairing.
Some bacteria use slipped strand mispairing to switch their expression of surface proteins in order to evade the immune system. What is this called?
Phase variation.
What is illegitimate recombination?
Recombination between DNA sequences that are only part homologous.
What do mismatch repair mechanisms recognise?
The pre-existing dam-methylated strand.
Some bacterial repair systems are error prone. What is an example of one of these systems?
SOS repair system.
What are the four types of chemical mutagens?
- Base analogous.
- Base modifications.
- Intercalating agents.
- UV light.
What do base analogous mutagens cause?
Substitutions.
What do base modifications mutagens cause?
Mispairing.
What do intercalating agent mutagens cause?
Framseshifts.
What do UV light mutagens cause?
Thymine dimers.
What is 5-bromouracil an example of?
A base analogue of thymine.
Only the keto form of 5-bromouracil acts as a thymine analogue. True or false?
False, the enol form also does.
How does 5-bromouracil cause a AT-CG transition?
5-Bu keto incorporated in place of T. 5-bu enol in DNA then pairs with a incoming G causing a AT-CG transition.
How does 5-bromouracil cause a GC-AT transition?
5-BU enol paired with G restores to its normal kept form. pairing with A in the text round causing a CG-AT transition.
What does nitrous acid do to DNA in vitro/ in vivo?
Deaminates DNA.
What is adenine deaminated into and what does this pair with?
HX which pairs with Cytosine.
What is cytosine deaminated into and what does this pair with?
Uracil which pairs with adenine.
Cytosine can be deaminated into uracil by nitrous acid. This has a serious impact on the DNA. True or false?
False as uracil is recognised by DNA repair mechanisms.
How does hydroxylamine modify DNA and what effect does this have?
It adds an hydroxyl group onto cytosine which then behaves like thymine.
Do alkylating agents modify DNA in vitro or in vivo?
In vivo.
Name three alkylating agents…
NTG, FES, EMS.
What do alkylating agents do to DNA?
They add an alkyl group (methyl to ethyl) to guanine residues causing mispairing or depurination.