Nucleic Acids Flashcards
What is the monomer of a nucleic acid
Nucleotides
Are proteins usually acidic or basic
Basic
Are Nucleic acids acidic or basic
Acidic
What are the types of nucleic acids
DNA and RNA
What is the function of nucleic acid
To store genetic information and to retrieve genetic information
What are some modified nucleotides
ATP, NADH and cAMP
What makes up the sugar of a nucleotide
Phosphate and a pentose (furan)
Are nucleic acids negatively charged
yes
What is the difference between ribose and deoxyribose
Deoxyribose has a H in 2’ for deoxyribose and OH in 2’ for ribose
Do we have a furan in ribose
Yes
What carbon does the phosphate bind to
the 5’ and 3’ carbon
What are the shapes of nitrogenous bases
Pyramidine and purine
How many rings does pyramidine have
1
How many rings does purine have
2
What does the 1’ carbon bind to for pyramidine
The carbon 1 (N carbon)
What does the 1’ carbon bind to for purine
The NH carbon
What are the members of purines
A (adenine) and G (Guanine)
What are the members of pyramidine
C (Cytosine), Uracil and Thymine
What base is exclusive to DNA
Thymine
Are Nucleic acid bases hydrophobic or hydrophillic
Hydrophobic
What is resonant (in chemistry)
Electron ring causing partial double bond
What wavelength can Nucleotides absorb easily
260nm wavelength (UV light can be absorbed)
What is a nucleoside
Nucleotide with no phosphate
What is the nomenclature for nucleoside purines
add Osine
What is the suffix for for nucleoside pyrimidines
add Idine
What do you do for nucleotide purines
add ylate
What do you do for nucleotide pyramidines
idylate
What is deoxyribonucleotides
deoxyribonucleoside monophosphate
How are bases modified so transcription of Dna into RNA terminates
Through methylation
Are there modified nucleotides
yes
How are nucleotides joined
Phosphodiester bonds
What is the direction of the DNA
From the Phosphate end to the 3’ end
What is the backbone made of
Sugars and phosphates
What component of DNA is inherited from the parents
The bases
What is the difference between DNA and RNA in terms of structure
DNA is double helix, RNA is single helix
What makes DNA acidic
It is negatively charged
What does phosphate look like in DNA code
P with a circle
What is the primary structure of DNA
Sequence of bases from 5’ to 3’ end
what is the secondary structure
DNA involves 2 strands running in opposite directions (antiparallel)
Do the antiparallel DNA helixes have the same primary structure
No, they have complimentary structures
What is always equal in DNA bases
The sum of purines = sum of pyramidines
Are DNA in cells of the same specimen identical
yes
Does base composition change with age
NO
What did Franklin measure with X rays
DNA helix size and secondary structure
What is transformation
Bacteria changing their own DNA from the environment
What is DNA
The carrier of genetic information
How does DNA associate with each base
Hydrogen bonds
Why does the number of pyramidines = number of purines in DNA
Because of the complimentary nature of double helix structures
What does adenine bond with
Thymine
What does cytosine bond with
Guanine
How many hydrogen bonds are between A and T
2
How many hydrogen bonds are between C and G
3
Are other base pairings possible
Yes, but not as stable
Can purine purine bonds and pyramidine pyramidine bonds occur
No
How is the double helix stabilised
By the base pairs
Is DNA amphiphatic
Yes
Can DNA transcribe into RNA
Yes
What are viruses that infect bacteria
phages
What are viruses made of
50% proteins and 50% nucleic acids
Does virus use their own DNA
No, they use the host cell’s DNA
How was viruses not using their own DNA but using their own proteins proven
Trough radioisotopes of phosphorous (DNA) and Sulphur (proteins)
What is a turn under watson and crick’s model
Right handed (clockwise) helix with a major and minor groove
What does DNA look like on top
Sugars and phosphates on the edge and bases in the middle
Why do we need to have an even diameter DNA
Because it needs to be stable, and if it wasn’t even it would be unstable
What is the humn form of DNA
B form and Z form occasionally
What is a N-O bond
Glycosidic bond
How would we denature DNA
Splitting the strands into two
What happens if denatured dna renatures
Annealed
Can hybrid DNA form
Yes, but only partially
What is hybridisatation
When short DNA sequences or RNA bind to separate DNA sequences
Why are some genes so similar
Because some genes are essential to life
What happens on a macro scale when DNA denatures
Decreasing viscosity
What kind of DNA has higher absorbtion at 260nm UV light than the other
Denatured DNA
What happens when you denature DNA
A hyperchromic (absorbance) shift
What is the melting temperature
Where half of the DNA has denatured
What increases melting point
Long DNA with lots of Cytosenes and Guanines
What base pair usually gets replicated first
the A’s and T’s
What can stabilize the double helix and why
Cations because DNA is negatively charged due to the phosphates
Why does DNA denature at extreme PH’s
Becuase DNA is held with hydrogen bonds which protonise as acids and deprotonise as bases
What bonding force allows denaturing temperatureto be low
Hydrogen bonds
What is a pallindrome in DNA
Inverted repeats
What happens if there are self complimentary sequences
It can form H bonds with each other
How many molecules of nuclear DNA are there per cell
46
What does mitochondrial DNA look like
Circular
What can DNA do in terms of making stuff
Copy itself and transcribe RNA
What is involved in the elongation phase of DNA replication
Synthesizing and attatching the okazaki fragments to the lagging strand with DNA polymerase delta (5’ to 3’ on lagging strand so backwards)
What is the enzyme for polymerizing DNA
DNA polymerase
What is nucleophillic attack
Where the OH donates an electron to the phosphate
Why is magnesium important
Attracts phosphates and aspartines
What direction do we synthesize
5’ (PO4) to 3’ (OH)
Which polymerases the most important to replicate nuclear DNA
Alpha, delta and epsilon
How often do DNA make errors
1 in 1000000000
What happens after polymerization
3’ to 5’ proofreading
What makes the leading strand
DNA polymerase epsilon
Where are the RNA primers
at the end
What are the RNA primers for
to stop the polymerization)
What is the leading strand made of
Continuous strands
What is the lagging strand made of
Okazaki fragments (small little bits which continur into RNA primers sometimes
What synthesises the lagging strands
Delta
What does DNA ligase do
glue 2 okozaki fragments together
What does the primase do
Every okozaki fragment and end of the strands rna primers
What is the gyrase
Cuts the DNA into 2 and relieve contortional stress (prevents dna from overwinding)
What is the RPA protein
Kepps the DNA denatured
What is PCNA
Holds DNA polymerase delta and epsilon onto the template strands
How fast does replication go
200 nucleotides per second
How is nuclear DNA structured
Linearally
WHat do chromosomes have a role of
Faithful transmission and appropriate expression.
What is a combination of DNA an proteins
Chromatin
What do nuclear proteins do
Bind DNA to the nucleus
What are the centromeres
Constricted central region
What are the telomeres
The edges of the chromosomes
What is the shorter chromosome arm called
p arm
what is the longer chromosome arm called
q arm
What happens where there is two chromatids but one chromosome
There are 2 DNA molecules but one centromere
What happens most of the time in chromosomes
only one molecule of DNA
What numbers chromosomes
Size of the condensed chromosomes
What are the different centromere positons from closest to center to furtherst away
Metacentric, submetacentric, acrocentric and telocentric
What type of chromosome is the most stable
Metacentric
What is the haploid numbers
the number of chromosomes from one parent
what is the haploid number for humans
23
What is C
the mass of each DNA molecule
How much does DNA weigh
3.5*10^-12 cells
What is a karyogram
Visual profile of all chromosomes
What is a homologous pairs
the pairs of identical chromosomes
What do the light and dark reigions show
AT and GC pairs
What is a giesma stain
Bind more effectively to A’s and T’s meaning that the pale reigions are C’s and G’s
What are the types of chromatin
Euchromatin and heterochromatin
What chromatin will be used more often
Euchromatin
What are the proteins in chromatin
Histones
What PH is histones
Basic
What are the types of histone proteins
H1 H2a H2b H3 and H4
How long are haploid genomes
2 m
What does DNA wrap around
an octoma of histome
What joins the octoma
the H1 protein
How many octom are there wrapping DNA
2
What does DNA do after it wraps around the 2 octomer
it bends around the scaffold protein
How many proteins are in the nucleosome octomer
2 H2a 2 H2b 2 H3 and 2 H4
What does the chromatosome
the H1 protein
What are genes
Functional units of DNA
where does RNA in the body come from
complement of one of the DNA strands
What percentage of the genes encode protein
5%
What happens when DNA turns into messenger RNA
transmission
What is the coding strand
the strand being converted into RNA, except the T’s become U’s
What does helicase do
It unzips the DNA by breaking H bonds
What phase does DNA replication occur in
S phase
Do we need to replicate histones while replicating DNA
yes
What protein is required to transport histodones to the replication fork
Chromatin assembly factor 1
During the replication of DNA, are all histones transported in DNA replication newly synthesized
no, only some are
How was this experimentally proven
Cells were first replicated using a heavy amino acid base, then when transferred to a light amino acid base and replicated again, the DNA of the cell was at mixed densities as seen with centrifugation
Why are there multiple origins of replication
Due to the DNA being too long for one origin of replication
What do the telomeres have a pattern of
TTAGGG
What elements are needed for a replicated chromosome
Centromere, telomere and arms
What is the order of replication
Telomeres to Centromere