Molecular basics Flashcards
What is the whole name for DNA?
Desoxyribonucleic acid
What are the building blocks of DNA?
Sugar, Nitrogenous bases/ Nucleobases, Phosphate
What type of sugar does DNA contain?
Desoxyribose (Desoxy- because at C5 an oxygen is missing)
It is a beta-pentose
How can you classify the nitrogenous bases of DNA?
Purine (Two-Ring bases) A, G
Pyrimidine (Single-Ring bases) T, C
What are the Names of the purine bases?
Adenine and Guanine
What are the names of the pyrimidine bases?
Thymine and Cytosine
What is the correct complementary base pairing in DNA?
Adenine + Thymine
Guanine + Cytosine
What are the bonds between the nitrogenous bases?
Hydrogen bonds
How many hydrogen bonds are between Adenine and Thymine?
2
How many hydrogen bonds are between Guanine and Cytosine?
3 (more energy is needed to separate the bases)
What is the role of phosphate in the DNA?
It connects sugars over phosphodiester bonds
What is a Nucleoside?
Sugar and base
What is a Nucleotide?
Sugar, base and phosphate
What is the backbone of the DNA composed of and how is it connected?
It is composed of sugar (desoxyribose) and phosphate.
C3 of the sugar is linked to the C5 of the next sugar by phosphodiester bonds.
What is the Nucleoside of Adenine?
Adenosine
What is the Nucleoside of Guanine?
Guanosine
What is the Nucleoside of Thymine?
Thymidine
What is the Nucleoside of Cytosine?
Cytidine
What is the Nucleoside of Uracil?
Uridine
How and where is the DNA of prokaryotes stored?
- In the cytoplasm (they don’t have a nucleus)
- Only coding DNA
- 1 circular molecule
- Supercoiling to reduce length
What is negative and what is positive Supercoiling?
Wich enzyme is responsible for this process?
Negative Supercoiling:
- DNA has one turn less
Positive Supercoiling:
- DNA has one turn more
Introducing or removing turns lead to DNA molecule turning around itself. That reduces the length of the DNA.
Topoisomerase is responsible for supercoiling.
What is the general structure of the DNA?
- The DNA is a double Helix
- The DNA hat antiparallel strands
- The DNA consists of sugar, bases and phosphate
How and where is DNA in Eukaryotes stored?
- DNA is stored in the nucleus
- DNA coils around Histones -> Nucleosome
- Fiber packed of nucleosomes: Chromatin
- Nonhistone proteins form chromatin loops
(While Mitosis: Condensed chromatin loops form a chromosome)
What is the structure and what are the compounds of a Histone?
- A histone is a octamer (consists of 8 proteins)
Octamer of core histones: H2A, H2B, H3, H4 (Each one 2x)
Histone H1 stabilizes
How often does the eukaryotic DNA wrap around a histone?
Twice
What are the two types of chromatin?
Heterochromatin and Euchromatin
What is the difference between heterochromatin and euchromatin?
Heterochromatin: Light part in the nucleus: low density (reduced level of H1)
Euchromatin: Dark part of the nucleus: high density (high level of H1; not transcripted)
What kind of proteins form the chromatin loops of eukaryotic DNA
Nonhistone Proteins
How many chromosomes make up the human genome?
23 Chromosome pairs, so in total 46 chromosomes
What is the genome?
A cells set of DNA
How can you classify chromosomes? (Two types)
Autonomes (Chromosomes of pairs 1-22)
Allosomes (Chromosomes of pair 23): Sex chromosomes
How do you call the graphic representation of a human genome?
Karyogram
A gene always carries….?
Exons and Introns
How do you call the protein complex, that is responsible for the DNA replication?
Replisome
How is DNA replicated?
DNA is replicated semiconservative, Bidirectional, semidiscontinuous and each strand is a template for a new strand.
Wich enzyme unzips the DNA while replication?
Helicase