Unit 5 Test Flashcards
What is the accepted theory for DNA replication?
Semiconservative, where each DNA molecule is made from one old and one new strand.
During DNA synthesis, are nucleotides added to the 3’ or 5’ end?
Nucleotides are added to the 3’ end of the growing new strand from the 5’ end.
What are deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs)?
The raw materials for DNA synthesis (dATP, dTTP, dTCP, and dTGP).
How is the 3-phosphate structure important for the function of dNTPs?
During DNA synthesis, the two outer phosphate groups are released, which creates the energy needed to form the phosphodiester bonds between the remaining phosphate group and the 3’ Carbon.
What is used to catalyze the additions of nucleotides to the growing DNA strand?
DNA polymerase.
Where does DNA replication begin?
The origin of replication (ori).
What is the replication bubble?
The opening of DNA where replication is occurring.
What are the replication forks?
The two “sides” of the replication bubble that the replicated DNA will grow towards.
How do prokaryotic and eukaryotic origins of replication differ?
Prokaryotes only have one origin of replication, while eukaryotes have many.
Which enzyme is responsible for unwinding each replication fork?
Helicase.
What is topoisomerase?
The enzyme responsible for removing the tension created by Helicase.
What is the purpose of a primer?
DNA polymerase is unable to start replication by itself, so primer is necessary for beginning replication.
What is a primase?
The enzyme that lays down the primer.
What is the leading strand?
The strand of DNA that grows continuously towards the replication fork.
What is the lagging strand?
The strand of DNA that grows away from the replication fork, and must therefore have new primers constantly added to it.
What are Okazaki fragments?
The stretches of DNA in between primers.
How are Okazaki fragments joined together?
DNA polymerase I will replace the primer with DNA, and DNA ligase will catalyze the creation of the bond that connects the fragments.
Why will new chromosomes have a small amount of single-stranded DNA at each end?
When the last DNA primer is removed, no DNA can be synthesized to replace it because there is no 3’ end to extend. This makes it so that the original strand is slightly longer than the new strand.
How do cells fix the problem of shortening DNA?
Telomeres will be added to the ends of chromosomes through telomerase.
What are telomeres?
Strings of repetitive nucleotide sequences that don’t actually hold any genetic information.
What are the two major repair mechanisms for DNA replication?
Proofreading and mismatch repair.
What is proofreading?
When DNA polymerase inserts the wrong nucleotide into the synthesizing strand of DNA, the polymerase will immediately take out the incorrect nucleotide and try again.
What is mismatch repair?
When an error is noticed in post-replicated DNA, repair proteins will remove the mismatched base from the strand, and a DNA polymerase will add the correct bases.
What is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)?
A cyclic process where artificial primers will repeatedly start the synthesis of new DNA strands, allowing researchers to make multiple copies of short DNA sequences in a test tube.
What is the central dogma?
The flow of information in a cell (from DNA to RNA to proteins).
What is transcription?
When the information in a DNA sequence is copied into a complementary RNA sequence.
What is translation?
When an RNA sequence is used to create an amino acid sequence of a polypeptide.
What is the difference between the coding strand and the template strand?
The coding strand will exactly resemble the RNA strand (except T’s become U’s), and the template strand is what is being transcribed.
What is the primary difference between RNA polymerase and DNA polymerase?
Unlike DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase does not need a primer.
What are the three processes that make up transcription?
Initiation, elongation, and termination.
What are the components of transcription initiation?
The promoter sequence, the unwinding, and the promoter release.
What is the promoter sequence?
A sequence of DNA that tells the cell where a gene starts and where RNA polymerase will first bind.
What is the unwinding sequence?
When RNA polymerase unwinds the DNA.
What is promoter release?
RNA will takes a few tries before it is committed (10 nucleotides). Once committed, elongation will begin.
What are the three main “jobs” of RNA polymerase during elongation?
Unwinding/reannealing, dissociation, and proofreading.
What is unwinding and reannealing?
RNA polymerase unwinds the DNA in front of it and reanneals the DNA behind it.
What is dissociation?
RNA polymerase ensures that the RNA does not stay attached to the DNA.
In what direction does RNA polymerase read the template strand?
3’ to 5’.
In what direction is RNA synthesized?
5’ to 3’.
What happens during transcription termination?
RNA polymerase dissociates completely from the DNA.
What is RNA processing?
Pre-mRNA is modified to make it into a mature mRNA transcript.
What is capping?
Once RNA polymerase is committed, a guanine nucleotide and a methyl group will be added to the 5’ end (GTP-cap).
What is Polyadenylation?
The adding of 200 adenine nucleotides to the 3’ end of the mRNA.
What is the poly-a-tail?
The 200 adenine nucleotides at the end of the mRNA.
What are exons?
Coding regions of mRNA
What are introns?
Noncoding regions of mRNA