Molecular Biology (Quiz 1, Chp 9, 10, 11) Flashcards
What is the central dogma?
This is a theory that explains the flow of genetic information within a biological system. It states the genetic information flow from DNA to DNA and from DNA to RNA to protein.
What are the two types of nucleic acids?
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA)
What is DNA?
DNA contains genetic information used in to development and functioning of all known living creatures. It is the carrier of genetic information.
What is RNA?
RNA is involved in the transmission of the genetic information to the cell machinery. It is the transmitter of the genetics encoded into DNA.
What are prokaryotes?
Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms that lack a nucleus. It includes things like bacteria and archea.
What are the characteristics of DNA within prokaryotes?
The DNA is interspersed throughout the cytosol as there is no nucleus. The DNA is circular. Some prokaryotes have plasmids.
What are plasmids?
Plasmids are a small amount of DNA that carry genes for survival such as antibiotic resistance genes. Plasmids replicate independently and do not need genomic DNA to do so. Plasmids are also not infectious.
Will a prokaryote survive if it loses a plasmid?
Yes, it does not need a plasmid to survive. The plasmid only provides extra functions.
What are eurkaroyotes?
Eukaryotes have DNA within the nucleus of a cell.
In eukaryotes, where does transcription occur?
Nucleus
In eukaryotes, where does protein synthesis occur?
Ribosomes in cytosol.
Does the mitochondria have it own genetic material?
Yes. Mitochondria have their own DNA and RNA so it can make proteins for itself. The DNA is circular which makes sense as millions of years ago the cells incorporated the mitochondria in which was a bacteria.
What are the characteristics of DNA in eukaroyotes?
DNA is linear and associated with histone protein to form chromatin.
The primary structure of nucleic acids refers to a _________________ of DNA.
Single strand
How is the primary structure of a nucleic acid determined?
Order of the nucleotides
The order of what in DNA determines the genetic information?
Nucleotides
Each nucleotide (NTP and dNTP) consist of what 3 things?
- 5-carbon sugar
- Nitrogen-containing base covalently attached to the sugar
- Phosphate group covalently attached to the sugar
What bond attaches the phosphate group to the 5’ carbon of the sugar ring in nucleotides?
Covalent phosphoester bonds
What is the functional unit of the nucleotide?
Nitrogenous base
What are the four base nucleotides that make up DNA?
Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine
What are the four base nucleotides that make up RNA?
Adenine, Uracil, Guanine, and Cytosine
What 3 nucleotides come from pyrimidine?
Thymine, uracil, and cytosine
What two nucleotides come from purine?
Adenine and guanine
What is a nucleoside?
A nucleoside is just a nucleotide without a phosphate group attached
What bond joins together nucleotides?
Phosphodiester bond which is a strong covalent bond.
How is DNA and RNA always read?
5’ end to 3’ end.
Note: When being replicated and translated it is read by the polymerases from 3’ to 5’.
What is the DNA backbone?
The DNA is protected by a sugar and phosphate backbone.
The secondary structure of DNA is referring to ____________.
DNA Double Helix
In the DNA double helix, the two chains are _____________.
Antiparallel
What is chargaff’s rule?
This is the idea of base pairing and how 1 pyrimidine is also paired with 1 purine to make the DNA a 50/50 split of both.
In DNA, adenine and thymine are base pairs. How many and what type of bonds hold them together?
2 Hydrogen bonds
In DNA, guanine and cytosine are base pairs. How many and what type of bonds hold them together?
3 Hydrogen bonds
Complementary base pairing is the _____________ for _____________ of DNA.
Foundation
Replication
The original parental strands of DNA are __________ and seperate to allow access for new base pairs.
templates
How do you get from the DNA strand to the complementary strand?
- Match base pairs
5-ATCG-3 =
3-TAGC-5
- Reverse it
3-TAGC-5 =
5-CGAT-3 which is the complementary strand
DNA can exist in both left and right handed forms. What is the most common form?
Right-handed form
What are the 3 conformations of DNA and which is most common?
B, A, and Z
B is the most common conformation and is right-handed.
What are the characteristics of the B right-handed conformation of DNA?
- The planes of the nucleotide bases in the double helix basically perpendicular to the helix axis
- Each base pair has the same width 2 nanometer diameter)
- It has 10 base pairs per helical twist (each base pair is 36 degrees)
Is the Z conformation of DNA left or right handed?
Left-handed and is very rare
Can the conformation of DNA (B, A, Z right/left) be switched?
It can be switched but not randomly.
What are the 3 bonds that stabilize DNA and which is the strongest?
- Hydrogen bond
- Stacking interaction (strongest)
- ionic interaction
Stacking interactions that stabilize DNA result from ____________ forces.
Hydrophobic
Do GC pairs or AT pairs alter DNA stability?
GC pairs increase DNA stability. The more GC pairs means the more stable the DNA is.
What is DNA denaturation?
DNA denaturation/melting is the process is which DNA loses the secondary structure that is present in the native state due to heat or alkali chemicals.
On the UV spectrum, what is the difference between Native and Denatured DNA?
Denatured DNA has…
1. Decreased viscosity
2. Increased UV absorbance
Can DNA denaturation be reveresed?
Yes. Reversing denaturation is called renaturation or hybridization.
Why is DNA supercoiled?
To package it tighter
In prokaryotic cells, is the direction of the supercoil the same or different than the DNA conformation?
It is the opposite. If the DNA is right-handed conformation, the supercoil will be left handed
What is the function of type I topoisomerases?
Type 1 topoisomerase break one DNA strand in prokaryotic DNA.
What is the function of type II topoisomerases?
Type II topoisomerase is also called a gyrase. It breaks both strands of DNA.
What is the general functions of topoisomerase enzymes?
They cut and relax DNA so it be used as a template in replication.
What two antibiotics inhibit DNA gyrase (topoisomerase II)?
Ciprofloxacin and Novobiocin
The DNA molecules are integrated with proteins allowing it to fold and become compact. What are these called?
Chromatin/ chromosomes
What are the two main groups of proteins involved in the folding/packaging of eukaryotic chromosomes?
Histones (fixed in the chromatin and + charge) and non-histones (not fixed in the chromatin and less + charge)/=.
What are the 5 different histones proteins?
H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4
Histones have different percentages of arginine and lysine in them. What do these amino acids do?
These allow the histones to be positively charged and therefore attracted to the negatively charged DNA and incorporate themselves into DNA-protein complex.
The basic unit of chromatin organization is the __________.
Nucleosome. Nucleosome consists of the DNA double helix strands that twist around the histone protein core as well as the linker DNA and H1 protein. The histone proteins are in the basketball thing.
Each nucleosome contains __________ basepairs of DNA.
200
Nuclease digestion releases the nucleosome core particle. This nucleosome core particle consists of ________ base pairs and ____________ histones.
150
Octamer
What is contained within the nucleosome octamer?
Two H2A/H2B dimers and two H3/H4 dimers. This totals 8 histones proteins
After nuclease digestion, how come 50 base pairs are lost?
There are linker DNA strands that are 50 basepairs. So when the nucleosome is digested, the linker DNA is lost resulting in a core particle that is 150 base pairs.
What is the H1 protein for on the nucleosome?
The H1 protein binds to linker DNA and attaches the nucleosomes together. It binds to the nucleosome core particle and stabilizes the DNA strand that twists around the octamer.
The nucleosome structure is still not coiled enough. It has to be coiled even further into ______________.
30nm fiber
How many nucleosomes are in 1 turn of the 30nm fiber for further condensing?
6 nucleosomes per turn
What are 3 drugs that can inhibit topoisomerases to be used as anticancer chemotherapeutic agents?
Doxorubicin, Etopiside, and Camptothecin
What is the sequence of condensing a DNA strand into a chromosome?
DNA stand —–> double helix —-> nucleosome (supercoil) —-> 30nm fiber——-> chromatin——> chromosome
During what phase of cell division are chromosomes formed?
M phase
During what phase of cell division is DNA replicated?
S phase
What is the size of the human genome?
Over 3 billion base pairs
How many genes does the human genome contain?
Between 20,000 and 25,000 genes
What is the definition of a gene?
A gene is the functional unit of the chromosome and is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that codes for a molecule, a polypeptide or a RNA molecule, which has a function. There is a regulatory and intergenic region
What is an allele?
An allele is a variant form of a gene. Alleles can have dominant and recessive genetic diseases encoded passed from either mom, dad, or both.
RNA is _________ stranded and connected by __________ bonds. RNA is stabilized by ___________ interactions.
Single
Phosphodiester
Stacking
What are the main differences between DNA and RNA?
Know this chart
In eukaryotes, DNA has to be replicated _______ a cell _______ during the S phase.
Before
Dividies