Molecular Basics of Genetics Flashcards
Who discovered the structure of DNA?
Watson and Crick
What are the polymers of Nucleotides?
DNA and RNA
What is a nucleotide?
building blocks of an nucleic acid, there are 3 parts: phosphate group, nitrogenous base and a sugar
What are the 3 differences between RNA and DNA
- DNA is a two stranded double helix, RNA only has 1 strand
- Uracil replaces Thymine as one of the bases in RNA
- RNA has 1 more oxygen atom in its sugar (deoxyribose vs ribose)
What is the structure of DNA?
Double helix, antiparallell base strands, nucleotides linked by hydrogen bonding between complimentary base pairs
What helps to supercoil DNA?
DNA gyrase
What is the role of DNA polymerase?
add nucleotides to the 3’ end of a primer so that its actually adding it 5’ to 3’
What are the two strands in DNA replication?
Leading strand and lagging strand
What strand has continuous replication?
Leading strand
What is an Okazaki fragment?
Section of lagging strand that had been replicated
What is helicase?
enzyme that unwinds the double helix by breaking hydrogen bonds in between bases, used to in the process of copying DNA
What is DNA gyrase?
enzyme that is essential in DNA supercoiling
What is DNA primase?
type of RNA polymerase
What is a dideoxyribonucleotide?
type of nucleotide which inhibits DNA polymerase
What are tandem repeats?
occur when a sequence of nucleotides repeats next to each other
What are the regions of DNA that do not code for proteins?
Regulators of gene expression, introns, telomeres, genes for tRNA
What is transcription?
synthesis of mRNA copied from the DNA base sequences
What is translation?
synthesis of polypeptides on ribosomes
How is the amino acid sequence determined?
codons on rna
What is a codon?
sequence of 3 nitrogenous bases
What codes for an amino acid?
A combination of 3 nitrogenous bases
What is an anticodon?
opposite three codons from those on mRNA
What does translation depend on?
complementary base pairing between complementary codons on mRNA and anticodons on tRNA
What are the 3 types of RNA?
Messanger, Transport, Ribosome
Which direction does transcription occur?
5’ to 3’
What helps regulate transcription in eukaryotes?
Nucleosomes, they can control how tightly a gene is wrapped so a section that is “turned off” is tightly wrapped and inaccessible