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Biology 360 > Topic 1 - Intro and Background > Flashcards

Topic 1 - Intro and Background Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a key limitation of CRISPR gene editing?

A

Can only edit genomic DNA, not mtDNA (because the machinery cannot cross the mitochondrial membrane)

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2
Q

Who was the first person to identify and describe cells?

A

Robert Hooke

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3
Q

What was Robert Hooke looking at under the microscope when he first observed cells? Describe the state of the cells

A

Looking at cork (dead plant material)

Wasn’t actually looking at cells, he was looking at where cells used to be (plant cell walls being observed)

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4
Q

Who was the first person to observe living cells?

A

Antony van Leeuwenhoek

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5
Q

What was Antony van Leeuwenhoek observing when he first observed cells?

A

Volvox (an alga)

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6
Q

Why are cells called “cells”?

A

Robert Hooke thought they looked like the cells that monks used to live in but in miniature

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7
Q

What three statements make up the cell doctrine?

A
  1. Cells are the smallest living unit
  2. Cells are distinct units with specific tasks
  3. A cell can only derive from another cell by cell division
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8
Q

What kind of organism does NOT follow the rules of the cell doctrine?

A

Viruses

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9
Q

What are the 3 domains of life?

A

Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya

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10
Q

Why are phylogenetic trees of the whole tree of life constructed using rRNA instead of genomic DNA? (3)

A
  1. rRNA is in all cells
  2. It is easy to clone and get a lot of for analysis
  3. It follows predictable patterns of mutation
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11
Q

What are the 7 universal features of all cells?

A
  1. Store hereditary info as cells
  2. Replicate hereditary info
  3. Transcribe DNA into RNA
  4. Translate RNA into proteins
  5. Use proteins as catalysts
  6. Use the same molecular building blocks to produce materials
  7. Are enclosed by a plasma membrane
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12
Q

Describe the lipids in the membrane of Archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotic cells

A

Archaea: Branched hydrocarbons

Bacteria and Eukarya: Unbranched hydrocarbons

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13
Q

Why may it be useful for archaea to have branched hydrocarbon-lipids embedded in their membranes?

A

This might help stabilize organisms in environments where temperatures are extreme, help them to grow and proliferate under these conditions

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14
Q

Which domain(s) of life lack peptidoglycan in their cell walls?

A

Archaea and eukarya

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15
Q

The only domain(s) of life whose cells have membrane-bound organelles is/are…

A

Eukarya

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16
Q

No pathogens belonging to this domain of life have yet to be found

A

Archaea

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17
Q

What are the 4 basic features of all cells (think: prokaryotic/archaea cells, less complex)

A
  1. Plasma membrane
  2. DNA
  3. Ribosomes
  4. Cytosol
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18
Q

The smallest living organism is…

A

A bacteria, specifically: Mycoplasma spiroplasma

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19
Q

What are the 4 possible metabolic pathways in which organisms can create energy?

A
  1. Photoautotrophy
  2. Photoheterotrophy
  3. Chemoautotrophy
  4. Chemoheterotrophy
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20
Q

What 2 methods can be employed to identify bacteria?

A
  1. Growing bacteria in medium, in culture

2. Gene sequencing

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21
Q

What kind of metabolic pathway (chemo/photo, auto/hetero) pathway do humans use?

A

Chemoheterotrophy

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22
Q

Why can’t all bacteria be grown in a lab culture?

A

May not know their needs (some need light, pH, specific nutrients, etc.)

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23
Q

What is the biggest bacterium? How big is it?

A

Thiomargarita magnifica, over 1 cm long

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24
Q

What is atypical about Thiomargarita magnifica compared to other bacteria, other than its size?

A

It has membranes inside it enclosing different regions, similar to compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells

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25
Q

What organelles (not including the 4 required features for all cells) are specific to eukaryotic animal cells? (2)

A
  1. Centrosome with a pair of centrioles

2. Lysosomes

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26
Q

Do plants have centrosomes and centrioles?

A

Just centrosomes

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27
Q

What organelles (other than the 4 foundational components of all cells) are specific to plant eukaryotic cells? (4)

A
  1. Large central vacuole
  2. Chloroplasts
  3. Cell walls
  4. Plasmodesmata (not an organelle)
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28
Q

Describe fungal cells

A

Have cell walls, vacuoles (not always but often)

Sometimes their cell walls have large holes - this effectively links cells into one environment: effectively one large multinucleated cell

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29
Q

What are plasmodesmata?

A

Holes in the cell walls of plants or fungal cells

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30
Q

What are two examples of factors which can influence differentiation of cells into distinct cell types

A
  1. Differential expression of proteins/transcription factors

2. Epigenetic changes

31
Q

Different sets of genes are usually activated in response to…

A

The environment - chemical processes and cues

32
Q

What is the advantage of having compartmentalized cells?

A

Barriers allow for distinct regions to have different chemical environments. This is advantageous because:

  1. Some proteins are pH activated
  2. Chemical gradients (like proton gradients) are key in processes to create ATP
33
Q

Why is it useful for proteins to be arranged within the cell?

A

Arrangement allows for signalling to occur faster due to increased efficiency of sorting

34
Q

How do prokaryote and eukaryote genome sizes relate to each other, generally

A

Trend: Eukaryote genomes are larger than prokaryote genomes

35
Q

Describe the trend in eukaryote genome size and level of organization of the organism

A

There is no trend

36
Q

What is the size of the average bacterial genome (in # of genes)

A

1000-6000

37
Q

What is the size of the average archaea genome (in # of genes)

A

1000-6000 (same as bacteria)

38
Q

The largest bacterial genomes is over…

A

8000 genes

39
Q

How many genes does a human have (range)

A

20,000-30,000

40
Q

What does it mean for eukaryotes to have “hybrid DNA”

A

They have genomic DNA but also other kinds of DNA such as mtDNA

41
Q

What organelles contribute to the hybrid genomes of eukaryotes?

A

Mitochondria and chloroplasts

42
Q

What are 2 reasons eukaryotes tend to have larger genomes than prokaryotes?

A
  1. Have hybrid genomes

2. Have large amounts of non-coding DNA

43
Q

How much of the human genome is protein coding (%)

A

2%

44
Q

How much of the E. coli genome is protein coding?

A

89%

45
Q

Explain why there is such a large difference in the percentage of protein coding genes between humans and E. coli

A

Bacteria don’t maintain their physical forms, humans do. Therefore, bacteria just replicate when they have nutrient availability, when you need to reproduce quickly it makes more sense to have less DNA to replicate - tightly regulated genes

humans do other things with their nutrient availability and this has to be REGULATED, a lot of human non-coding DNA is regulatory.

46
Q

What do bacteria and mitochondria have in common?

A
  1. No nucleus but have their own DNA

2. Have their own ribosomes

47
Q

Plant cells have both mitochondria and chloroplasts, which did they take up first?

A

Mitochondria

48
Q

Are mitochondrial ribosomes more similar to eukaryotic cytosolic ribosomes or bacterial ribosomes?

A

Bacterial ribosomes

49
Q

What is the difference between the zebrafish genome and the Fugu genome?

A

Have the same number of genes but zebrafish has a 4x larger genome due to larger areas of noncoding DNA

50
Q

Why do plants have such a huge range of genome sizes?

A

Polyploidy is common in plants - depending on the Xn (e.g. 3n, 9n) the genome size varies

51
Q

Define the term Karyotype

A

A complete set of human chromosomes

52
Q

A situation where chromosomes 4 and 6 transfer segments to create “hybrid chromosomes” is an example of…

A

Reciprocal chromosomal translocation

53
Q

Reciprocal chormosomal translocation is often observed in (1) patients

A

Cancer

54
Q

How are different chromosomes fluorescently labelled?

A

DNA probes can be inserted into a chromosome “pool” and bind to specific sequences - unique to a particular set of chromosomes

55
Q

Does the number of chromosomes in a species correlate with its complexity?

A

No

56
Q

Describe the gene density of yeast compared to humans

A

Gene density is higher in yeast than it is in humans (for a given number of bases, how many genes are within that sequence)

57
Q

Describe the intron size as it relates to the human vs. Fugu Huntingtin gene

A

Same number of exons in both species for that gene, but the entire gene is much longer in humans due to larger introns/repetitive sequences

58
Q

If humans and mice are both mammals, why do mice have smaller genomes?

A

Humans have experienced several genome duplication events, some sequences have been lost/added resulting in a different (but very similar) number of genes between the two species

59
Q

How much smaller (%) is the mouse genome compared to the human one?

A

20% smaller

60
Q

Sequences which are conserved across species tend to be in these areas of a gene (2)

A
  1. Exons

2. Regulatory regions

61
Q

About how similar (%) are humans to a banana

A

50% sequence identity

62
Q

What are 4 processes which can eventually give rise to new genes?

A
  1. Intragenic mutation (e.g. base change in the gene exon)
  2. Gene duplication
  3. DNA segment shuffling (take 2 genes and “cross over”)
  4. Horizontal transfer (in plants mostly)
63
Q

Describe Horizontal gene transfer

A

Transfer of a gene from one individual to another within its cohort (not its offspring)

64
Q

Describe Vertical gene transfer

A

Transfer of genes from parent to offspring

65
Q

Plants with tumors/galls often look like this due to…

A

Horizontal gene transfer of a bacterium to a plant

66
Q

Orthologs and paralogs fall under the umbrella term of (1) genes

A

Homolog

67
Q

What is an ortholog?

A

An ancestral gene mutates causing two distinct species, orthologs are often very similar with slight differences

E.g. hemoglobin gene in mice and humans

68
Q

What is a paralog?

A

A gene duplicates and multiple versions of the gene are within the genome of the offspring which can now diverge

e.g. Hemoglobin and myoglobin, both in humans

69
Q

What are transposable elements?

A

Genes which can “jump” from one region of the genome to another, they replicate themselves

70
Q

What is a pseudogene?

A

Has the anatomy of a gene (promoter region, start and stop sequences, etc.) but never produces a protein product

71
Q

What likely causes pseudogenes to be nonfunctional?

A

A mutation in the promoter region of the gene

72
Q

What is a non-coding RNA gene?

A

Produces functional RNA as opposed to proteins

73
Q

What 2 factors cause human genomes to differ from one another?

A
  1. SNPs

2. Duplication and deletion events

74
Q

Why is it important to be able to identify humans by their DNA?

A
  1. Forensic investigations
  2. Identification of family members, paternity tests
  3. Therapies

Biology 360 (12 decks)

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