Study Unit 2 Flashcards
Programmed cell-specific DNA changes occur in ?
- Maturing B and T cells
- Human histocompatibility leukocytes antigen class 1 (HLA1)
Genetic variation is not the only influence on phenotype . What else can affect phenotype ?
- Different gene-environment interactions
- Epigenetic genetic variation independent of base sequence changes
How are mutations that produce genetic variation causes
- No repaired or incorrectly repaired DNA
- Spontaneous endogenous chemical process
- External physical or chemical agents
Define spontaneous endogenous chemical processes
Spontaneous changes/damage to the DNA within an organism.
Types of spontaneous damage
- Hydrolytic damage ( Abasic/ Apurinic/ Apyrimidinic site)
- Hydrolytic damage (deamination)
- Oxidative damage (strand breaks)
Damage due to UV radiation exposure from the sun.
- Base cross-linking
- Intra-strand: covalent bonds linking two bases on the same DNA strand.
EXPLAIN how covalent bonds linking two bases on the same DNA strand.
- Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers- linked carbon atoms 4 and 5 on adjacent pyrimidines on a DNA strand.
Explain the damage caused by cisplatin- anti-cancer agent .
- Causes base cross-linking
- Inter-stand: covalent bonds linking two bases on complimentary DNA strand.
- Cisplatin-anti-cancer agent causes cross links of guanines on opposite strands.
Explain oxidative damage
- ROS (reactive oxygen species) attack covalent bond in sugar.
- single strand break
-double strand break - Altered bonding
- DNA adduct
Explain complex single strand break
Ends are damaged and some nucleotides deleted.
What are the consequences of DNA strand breaks due to oxidative damage.
Consequence : may lead to chromosome rearrangement which can lead to cancer.
Explain altered bonding due to oxidative damage.
ROS cause mutagenic derivates that cause problems.
1. 8-oxoguanine- base pairs to adenine.
2. Thymidine glycol-blocks DNA polymerase.
Explain DNA adduct cause by ROS.
Covalent bonding of benzopyrene to guanine .
Mutations can occur anywhere in the genome but we see the smallest number of variants per kilobase (Kb)
Protein-coding fraction of the genome.
Mutations can occur anywhere in the genome but we see almost double the number of variants per kilobase (Kb)
Intergenic regions and repeat fraction of genome.
Different regions of DNA evolve at different rates, why?
Protein coding areas under go less mutations because a mutation could cause a detrimental change in a important protein.
When is a locus polymorphic
If a locus has two or more alleles whose frequencies exceed 1% in population
Types of DNA polymorphism
1 . Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
2. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)
3. Indel (insertion and deletion)
4. Mini-satellites/ tandem repeats (VNTR)
5. Micro-satellites/ short tandem repeats.
Characterise Single nucleotide polymorphisms
- A single base change in a DNA sequence that occurs in a significant proportion of a large population.
- SNPs are found in coding and non-coding regions.
- Occurs with a very high frequency
- SNP close to a gene acts as a marker to that gene.
Characterise restriction fragment length polymorphism.
- Generated by SNP that introduce or abolish a restriction site .
- SNP can prevent/ cause the binding of a restriction enzyme
What is an indel
Variation cause by insertion or deletion of between 2 and100 nucleotides.
Why does it seem that most mutations that occur in our genome have no effect on our phenotype?
- This happens because just a small percentage of our genome is transcriptionally active.
- Genetic redundancy: some genes are present in multiple, almost identical copies.
Define Conservative substitution
A nucleotide substitution that replaces one amino acid by another of the same chemical class that often has minimal consequences of how the protein functions.
What is the effect on polypeptides and proteins when a nonconservative substitution occurs.
- Loss of functional part of the protein
- Problem with protein folding
- New protein properties that can be harmful to the cell and tissue .
Topoisomerase function
untangling supercoils and making space for new DNA strands to be created. Topoisomerase can both cleave DNA at a desired replication site and also ligate the DNA once the process is complete.
What happens when there is topoisomerase dysfunction.
This causes strand breaks in the DNA .
Cockayne syndrome
A rare inherited disorder that results in an extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, mental retardation, and precocious aging. Caused by reactive oxygen species that attack DNA bases resulting in thymidine glycol which blocks DNA polymerase.
How does point mutation cause problems with splicing ?
- When the point mutation change the highly conserved nucleotides such a the GU(5’ end ), branch point, AG (3’ end). This causes problems with splicing when the spliceosome cannot bind.
- Point mutations can also occur in splice regulatory element , including splice enhancer and splice silencer sequence in exons and introns.