Test 3 Flashcards
What are the 4 characteristics that genetic material must posses?
- Must contain complex information
- Must replicate faithfully
- Must encode the phenotype
- Must have the capacity to vary
What is meant by “must contain complex information”?
The genetic material must be capable of storing large amounts of information
• instructions for the traits and functions of an organism
What is meant by genetic material “must replicate faithfully”?
• At each cell division, genetic instructions must be accurately transmitted to replicated cells.
• When organisms reproduce and pass genes to their progeny, the genetic instructions must be copied faithfully
What is meant by genetic material must “encode the phenotype”?
• genetic material has to have capacity to be expressed a a phenotype
• the products of a gene is often a protein or RNA molecule, so there must be a mechanism for genetic instructions in DNA to be copied to RNAs and proteins
What is meant by genetic material must “have the capacity to vary”?
• there must be variation with different and within species
• they must differ in their genetic makeup
Why was the discovery of the structure of DNA so important for understanding genetics?
understanding how genetic info is encoded and expressed is IMPOSSIBLE without knowing the structure of DNA
What are nucleotides?
unit of DNA or RNA
What are nucleotides made of?
Sugar, phosphate and a base
What do Chargaffs rules state?
Adenine=thymine
Guanine=cytosine
What organism did Fred Griffith use in his experiments?
streptococcus pneumoniae TYPES II and III
bacterium that causes pneumonia
What are the variants of the polysaccharide capsule?
• Rough
• Smooth
What are the characteristics of the ROUGH (R) variant in S. pneumoniae?
• does not form a polysaccharide capsule
• non-virulent
• do not kill mice
What are the characteristics of the SMOOTH (S) variant in S. pneumoniae?
• forms a polysaccharide capsule
• virulent
• kills mice
How does the smooth variant kill mice?
Because the smooth capsule protects it from the immune system
What happened when Griffith injected heat-killed IIS bacteria?
• The mice would live
• no IIIS bacteria in their blood
What happened when Griffith injected living IIR bacteria and a large amount of heat-killed IIS bacteria?
The mice got pneumonia and died
• there was IIS bacteria in blood in the heart
What did Griffith conclude?
IIR bacteria transformed using the genetic virulence of dead IIS bacteria. This produced a permanent genetic change in the bacteria
What is the transforming principle?
DNA; which is the substance responsible for transformation
What did Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty’s experiment reveal?
That the transforming substance is DNA
How did Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty do their experiment?
- Isolated the transforming substance
- enzymes that break down proteins had NO effect on the transforming substance
- Ribonuclease that destroyed RNA, had no effect
- DNase destroyed the transforming substance
What is the conclusion of the Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty experiment?
DNA is the carrier of the information for the serotype (type) and capsule (rough or smooth) production
What is a T2 bacteriophage?
A virus that infects the bacterium E. coli
How does a a bacteriophage infect a bacterial cell?
- Attaches to the outer wall of bacterial cell
- Injects it’s DNA into cell
- Bacterial chromosome break down and phage chromosome replicate
- Replicates and directs cell to synthesize phage proteins
- Phage DNA becomes encapsulated within the phage proteins
- Produce phages that lyse (break open) the cell and escape
What was the purpose of Hershey and Chase experiment?
To determine if the phage protein or the phage DNA was transmitted in phage reproduction
Why did Hershey and Chase use isotopes in their experiment?
Used as a tracer to identify the location of a specific molecule. A molecule containing the isotope will be radioactive and easily detected
What did Hershey and Chase use to identify and follow phage DNA?
• 32P
• phosphorus isotope BECAUSE DNA contains phosphorus
What did Hershey and Chase use to identify and follow phage protein?
• 35S
• sulfur isotope because protein contains SULFUR
How did Hershey and Chase do their experiment?
- One batch contained E. Coli containing 35S and infect bacteria with T2 phage. All progeny phages would have proteins labeled w 35S
- Another batch of E. Coli in medium containing 32P and infected bacteria with T2 phage. All progeny phages would have DNA labeled with 32P
- Separate batches of unlabeled E. Coli were infected with 35S and 32P labeled progeny phages
- After time, they centrifuged the cells to separate proteins from cells
What was the result after centrifuging the 35S batch?
• 35S is recovered in the fluid containing the virus coats
• No radioactivity is detected
• protein was not transmitted to the progeny phages
What was the result after centrifuging the 32P batch?
• infected bacteria form a pellet containing 32P at the bottom of tube
• progeny phages are radioactive indicating that DNA was transmitted to progeny phages
How did Rosalind Franklin and Wilkins use X-ray diffraction to study DNA?
- Crystals of a substance are bombarded with X-rays, which are diffracted (bounce off)
- The spacing of the atoms within the crystal determines the diffraction pattern, which appears as spots on a photographic film
- The diffraction pattern provides information about the structure of the molecule
How did Watson and Crick create the structure of DNA?
• used Rosalind’s X-ray diffraction images
• applied the laws of structural chemistry
• used Chargaff’s base ratios
What did Watson and Crick’s model show?
• DNA consists of two strands of nucleotides that run in opposite directions
• strands winds around each other to for right-handed helix
• sugars and phosphates on the outside
• bases in the interior
What was the purpose of Fraenkel-Conrat and Singer’s experiment?
To figure out if RNA or protein Carrie’s the genetic material in tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
How did Fraenkel-Conrat and Singer do their experiment?
- Degraded both types (A and B) of TMV to get RNA and coat proteins
- Mix RNA of one type with protein of other type (Type A RNA + type B protein)
- Created hybrid viruses
- Infect tobacco with the hybrids
- New viral particles were produced
- New viral progeny were identical to the strain from which the RNA had been isolated and didn’t show strain that donated the protein
What was the conclusion of Fraenkel-Conrat and Singer’s experiment?
That RNA directs coat protein synthesis
What did Gierer and Schramm demostrate?
RNA isolated from TMV is sufficient to infect tabacco plants and direct the production of new TMV particles
What did Gierer and Schramm confirm?
That RNA carries that genetic information in the virus
What are the sugars of nucleic acids?
Pentose sugars
How many carbons do pentose sugars have?
5
1’, 2’, 3’, 4’, 5’
What is the sugar in RNA?
Ribose
What does the ribose have attached at the 2’-carbon?
OH
What is DNA’s sugar?
DEOXYribose
What does the deoxyribose have attached at the 2’-carbon?
One Hydrogen atom
overall contains one oxygen fewer
What are the types of nitrogenous bases?
Purine and pyrimidine
What does a purine consist of?
A six-member ring attached to a five-member ring