Nucleic Acids Flashcards
Fred Griffith
experimented with pneumococcal strings, smooth (S) and rough (R)
found that hereditary material of harmful pneumonia cells transformed cells of a harmless strain into killers
Avery and McCarty
found the Transforming Principle by separating deadly S cells into lipid, protein and nucleic acid components
Conclusion: DNA is the “transforming principle”
Hershey and Chase
demonstrated different functions of protein and DNA with their T2 bacteriophage experiment
proteins contain more S than P, DNA is opposite
DNA remained in bacterial cell
composition of a DNA nucleotide
nitrogenous base, deoxyribose sugar and a phosphate
3’,5’ phosphodiester bonds
join the 3’-hydroxyl of one nucleotide to the 5’-phosphate of another
the antiparallel structure allows for hydrogen bonds to form between the nitrogenous bases
gene
DNA sequence that contains the base sequence information to code for a gene product, protein or RNA
genome
a complete DNA base sequence
replication
DNA synthesis that involves complimentary base pairing in two strands that comprise the DNA helix
genetic code
sequence of bases
transcription
RNA synthesis
involves complimentary base pairing of ribonucleotides to DNA bases
transcript
a new RNA
transcriptome
total RNA transcript’s for an organism
translation
synthesis of a protein
mRNA
messenger RNA specifies the primary protein sequence
tRNA
transfer RNA delivers the specific amino acid
rRNA
ribosomal RNA is a component of ribosomes
proteosome
the entire set of proteins synthesized
Gene expression
process by which cells control the timing of gene product synthesis in response to environmental or developmental cues
The Central Dogma
DNA -> RNA -> protein
retroviruses go in the reverse direction
chromosomes
DNA which contains genes
E. Coli chromosome
circular DNA molecule that is extensively looped and coiled
nucleoid
where the chromosome is attached to the protein core in at least 40 places, which limits the unraveling of DNA
Eukaryotes have _____ genomes when compared to prokaryotes
larger
Chromatin
DNA with associated proteins
Chromosome
condensed chromatin made up of linear DNA and associated proteins (visible during mitosis)
Nucleosomes
formed by the binding of DNA and his tome proteins
Epigenic modifications can _____
modify the accessibility of DNA
prokaryotic genome coding capacity
compact and continuous ; contain few to none noncoding sequences
Eukaryotic genome
- larger than prokaryotes
- enormous coding capacity, but majority of DNA is noncoding
- genes are interrupted by nonbonding introns, which can be removed by splicing
