Test 2 Notes Study Guide Flashcards
What are the three major components required for transcription?
- DNA template
- The ribonucleotide-triphosphates required to build the new RNA molecule.
- The transcription apparatus: proteins necessary from catalyzing the synthesis of RNA, and RNA polymerase
How do RNAs relate to the template strand?
RNAs are complementary and antiparallel to the template strand
What is the name of the 5’->3’ strand?
sense/coding strand
What is the name of the 3’-5’ strand?
antisense/noncoding strand
What is the difference between the template stand and the non template strand?
The template strand is complementary and antiparallel to RNA.
What does a transcription unit (gene) include?
A promotor, an RNA coding region, and a terminator.
What is the promotor?
A DNA sequence that RNA pol recognizes and binds
What is the transcription start site?
where the 1st nucleotide is laid
What is the function of RNA polymerase?
- synthesizes RNA in a 5’-3’ direction
- unwinds and rewinds DNA
Why are the consensus sequences AT rich?
because AT only has 2 hydrogen bonds so it is easier to break.
Where are the consensus sequences on the bacterial promotors?
-35 and -10 (pribnow box)
What does a consensus sequence consist of?
the most commonly encountered bases at each position in a group of related sequences.
What does the transcription apparatus consist of?
Core polymerase and holoenzyme
What is the core polymerase?
made-up of five subunits and actually transcribes/ builds RNA
What is a holoenzyme?
made up of the core polymerase and sigma factor
What does the sigma factor do?
recognizes -10 and -35 consensus sequences and binds to promotor sequence and recruits pol
What are the steps of transcription initiation?
- sigma factor binds promotor; -10 and -35 consensus sequence
- sigma attracts core pol
- Holoenzyme is at promotor
- Holoenzyme melts promotor + opens transcription bubble
- RNA pol adds 1+ nucleotide complementary to ssDNA
- sigma factor leaves
What happens during transcription elongation?
RNA pol extends seq 5’->3’ until termination sequence in DNA ; RNA pol unwinds and rewinds DNA
What are the two types of transcriptions termination?
1) Rho-dependent termination
2)Rho-independent termination
What happens during Rho dependent termination?
- Rho finds rut site on RNA
- goes up till it reaches polymerase and stops it
*works like helices but doesn’t have to unwind so it goes faster
What happens during Rho-independent termination?
1) inverted repeats in RNA bind to each other and cause hair pin loop
2) weak AU base pairs is enough to destabilize pol and pol lets go
What does the concept of collinearity suggest?
that a continuous sequence of nucleotides in DNA encodes a continuous sequence of amino acids in a protein
What are the ends of mRNA called?
5’ UTR and 3’UTR
What part of prokaryotic mRNA tells the ribosome to bind there?
Shine dalgarno sequence
What tells the ribosome to start and stop translation?
stop and start codons
What recruits the ribosome in prokaryotes?
shine-dalgarno sequence
What recruits the ribosome in eukaryotes?
5’ cap
What interrupts the coding sequences of many eukaryotic genes?
noncoding introns
When are intron removed?
RNA processing
What makes up the 5’ cap?
a single nucleotide with a 7-methylguanine attached to the pre-mRNA by a unique 5’-5’ bond
What are the functions of the 5’ cap?
- protection
- required to get out of the nuclear. pre/export
- recruit ribosome
What does the AAAAAA tail do?
bind ribosome
What are the steps of splicing?
- spliceosome binds consensus sequences at intron/exon boundaries
- mRNA is cut at 5’ end of intron
- 5’ end of intron attaches branch point A (lariat)
- 3’ end of intron cut
- exons joined, lariat (intron) free to be degraded
What does a spliceosome consist of?
five RNA molecules and 300 proteins
What is the branch point?
the adenine “A”, ~ 18-40 nucleotides upstream of 3’ splicing site
What are the steps of pre-mRNA processing?
1) the addition of the 5’ cap
2) the addition of the poly(A) tail
3) splicing removes the introns
What is alternative splicing.
alternative splicing enables exons to be spliced together in different combinations to yield mRNAs that encode different proteins
- multiple 3’ cleavage sites allow pre-mRNA to be cleaved and polyadenylated at different sites