Molecular Genetics Flashcards
Purines
Adenine
Guanine
Pyrimidines
Cytosine
Thymine
Uracil
Bond that links nucleotides
Phosphodiester
Connect 5’ C of one nucleotide with 3’C of the next
Euchromatin
Chromatin less condensed
Polymerases can be recruited to facilitate transcription
Heterochromatin
DNA highly condensed
Inaccessible to polymerases, transcriptionally inactive
Methylation of DNA
represses gene expression
GATC- mismatch repair at A
CpG islands- silencing
Acetylation of dna
Decondenses and opens chromatin
Decreases overall positive charge of histones allowing dna to loosely coil
Histone methylation
Gene expression may be increased or decreased depending on level
Reversible repress transcription
Metaphase chromosome
Highly condensed DNA structures that result from supercoiling chromatin
Telomeres
Consist of 2500 repetitions of TTAGGG
prevent degradation of portions of chromosomes that contain coding sequences (genes)
Mainly expressed in germ cells
Semiconservative
Dna replication follows this model
Strand of original helix serves as template for synthesis of new complementary strand
Each new daughter chromosome will contain one of the original “parent” strands and a newly synthesized “daughter” strand
Initiation of DNA synthesis
Initiator proteins facilitate duplex opening at origins of replication and recruit helices: this established a replication bubble where replication enzymes can associate with each parent strand
Single stranded binding proteins (SBBs)
Bind with newly separated parents strands, providing a physical barrier on each strand that prevents exposed nucleotides from interacting with free nucleotide or single strand polynucleotides
DNA polymerase and primate are able to easily displace SSBs, so presence doesn’t interfere with polymerization
Polymerization
Synthesis of new dna strands accomplished by consecutively attaching free nucleotides according to the template
Harness stored energy in a free nucleotides triphosphate tail, polymerases create new phosphodiester bond
Direction of DNA polymerase
Synthesizes new strand that is 5’-3’ by reading template strand that is 3’-5’
Leading strand
Parent strand whose bases are being continuously exposed in 3’-5’ direction
Lagging strand
Nucleotides are exposed in a 5’-3’ direction
Okazaki fragment
Polynucleotide on the lagging strand
Each new stretch of DNA polymerase activity continues until the previous rna primer is encountered, creating this
Processivity
Describes how likely a DNA polymerase is to remain bound to template strand.
DNA pol 3 has high processivity because it associates with a sliding clamp that anchors it to the template strand
Okazaki fragments in prokaryotes
DNA polymerase replaces the rna primer with dna nucleotides and ligaments established phosphodiester bonds between fragments
High fidelity
Property of DNA polymerase
Very accurate in pairing the appropriate nucleotides to the template strand
Primers in eukaryotes
One of the subunits of DNA polymerase alpha has rna primase activity, allowing it to initiate polymerization
DNA pol 1
Has both 3’-5’ and 5’-3’ exonuclease activity
Nucleoside
Sugar plus nucleic acid (no phosphate)
Nucleosome
Two turns of dna wound around proteins
Also called histones
Histone acetylation
Reflexes dna coiling allows for transcription
DNA methylase
Repairs mismatch by adding methyl groups
DNA gyrase
Prokaryotes
Circular chromosome
Relaxes supercoil dna to allow replication
Ex: nalidixic acid/ ciprofloxacin
3 pol
Alpha (iDNA), epsilon (leading), delta (lagging)
Growth phase 1- cell cycle
G1
Cell prepares for dna replication by sending nutrition status and dna damage, number of organelles roughly double, cell grows in size
DNA synthesis phase- cell cycle
S phase
Cell replicated dna so each chromosome has two copies
Copied attached to each other by cohesin proteins in a centromere (called sister chromatids, or one chromosome)
At end of phase, cell ends up with 46 chromosomes, and double amount of histones
Growth phase 2- cell cycle
Cell continues to grow and prepares for division by reorganizing organelles and cytoskeleton
Mitotic phase - cell cycle
M phase
DNA condenses to form visible pairs of sister chromatic that are separated and moved to opposite poles of cell
Cell splits into two daughter cells (cytokinesis)
Resting phase - cell cycle
G0 phase
Cell exists cell cycle and becomes quiescent until receives external stimuli (growth factors) to replicate again, and it will enter at G1
Amount of time spent here depends on cell type (mature neurons spend most lifespan here, intestinal lining cells spend no time here )
Restriction point - cell cycle
Check on the cell cycle to make sure environment is still appropriate for cellular division before entering S
Regulated by growth factors
Cyclin D
First cyclin of cell cycle
Necessary for cell to start transition from G1 to S
Stimulated by growth factors and starts to associate with cyclin D-specific CDK4 (which phosphorylates proteins necessary for transition) and CDK6