Unit 4 - Lec 14 Flashcards
when did LUCA appear?
4 bya
what is LUCA?
thermophilic
what are hyperthermophiles mostly?
mostly Archaea
what can bacteria also be?
hyperthermophilic
what is the superheated vent water?
sterile- no microogranisms
- no biochemical markers that signal life
who is the record holder for temp?
methanopyrus
what happens at 150C?
- ATP degrades
- life forms have to deal with heat liability of a molecule that is universally distributed in cells
how to maintain stabilitity of DNA/RNA and proteins at higher temps?
- thermostable proteins
- thermosomes
- chaperonins
- reverse DNA gyrase
- RNA modification
thermosome function?
- keeps other proteins properly folded and functional at high temps
- maintains DNA
what happens after heat shock treatment?
sufficient to enable cells to keep growing and dividing
thermostable proteins
- specific folding
- not specific amino acids
- alpha helical structure in thermostable proteins
- very hydrophobic core - can’t easily fold
- high ionic interactions on surface - can’t easily fold
chaperonins
heat shock proteins
- help refold partially denatured proteins
DNA/RNA involved thermostability
- increased K+
- reverse DNA gyrase
- reverse gyrase introduces positive supercoils into DNA
- pos supercoiling stabilizes DNA
- highly basic DNA-binding proteins
- heat resistant lipids
ribosomal RNAs
- structural and functional components of ribosome- cell’s protein synthesizing apparatus
- small ribosomal subunit in hyperthermophiles has 15% greater proportion of GC base pairs
what does higher GC content of ribosomal RNA confer?
greater thermal stability