Week 1 - Metabolism and Replication/ Transcription/ Translation Flashcards
Which amino acids are responsible for kinks or turns in the secondary structure of proteins?
glycine and proline
Sulphur in the R groups of amino acids affect protein structure how?
Creation of disulfide bonds. Cysteine and Methionine
How do disulfide bonds affect protein structure?
stabilize the tertiary structure
Differences between myoglobin and hemoglobin?
•Myoglobin transports O2 to mitochondria for storage
-hyperbolic curve for oxygen saturation
•Hemoglobin transports O2 from lungs to tissue
-sigmoidal curve for oxygen saturation
-easier for O2 to enter tissue
What causes proteins to unfold?
Ph
damage
temperature
organic solvents
Why do proteins aggregate when they denature?
The hydrophobic regions are exposed and can allow them to clump together in big groups
Name a few disease where aggregation of denatured proteins occurs:
Parkinson’s
Alzheimer’s
cataracts
type II diabetes
What happens in prion disease
Creation of beta sheets (alpha helixes are more normal) leads to self association and formation of amyloid fibers. Unclear as to whether it is the fibers themselves or vacuoles they produce that causes disease.
What is a mechanism of aggregation prevention?
Chaperones can prevent the aggregation of misfolded or toxic proteins by breaking up the large aggregate inclusions
Explain the method that chaperones use to break up toxic protein inclusions
chaperones often ubiquitinilate the toxic proteins. This tags them for digestion from the proteosomes
Link between cancer and chaperones?
Cancer tends have a lot of aggregation and lots of chaperones working to reverse this problem. By turning off the chaperones, these problems will not be corrected and the cancerous cells will die rather than continue to proliferate.
What causes the sigmoid curve of oxygen saturation in hemoglobin?
Cooperativity of the subunits. After one O2 attaches, it is much easier for the other ones to join as well. Changes from T state to R state
What is 2,3 bisphosphoglycerate?
It is an allosteric factor that binds and causes deoxygenated hemoglobin to have a lower affinity for oxygen. Basically promotes the T-state. Usually occurs in HIGH altitudes. ENHANCES ability to deliver oxygen to the best location.
What it the T-state
tense state in hemoglobin. It has a lower affinity for oxygen. This allows it to stay deoxygenated as it cycles through the body until hitting the high concentration of oxygen in the lungs. As soon as one oxygen binds it can quickly bind the rest.
What is the R state?
relaxed state in hemoglobin - after oxygen binds to the hemoglobin, the rest of them can easily jump on.
What mutation leads to sickle cell anemia?
A single point mutation in which glutamate is exchanged for a valine. This causes aggregation of beta chains.
Symptoms and treatment for sickle cell anemia?
Sym: swollen hands and feet, organ damage, necrosis, fever and intense pain, problems with lung function
Treatment: Hydroxyurea - basically activates fetal hemoglobin, which has a higher affinity for oxygen
When does fetal hemoglobin stop being produced and adult start?
4 months
Subunits for adult and fetal hemoglobin?
HbA = 2 aplha and 2 beta HbF = 2 alpha and 2 gamma
What does a nucleotide consist of? A Nucleoside?
Nucelotide = nitrogenous base, 5 carbon sugar, phopshate Nucleoside = nitrogenous base, and sugar
What is the base sugar in DNA? RNA?
DNA = 2'deoxyribose RNA = ribose
Purines in DNA/RNA?
Adenosine and Guanine
Pyrimidines in DNA?
Thymine and cytosine
Pyrimidines in RNA?
Cytosine and Uracil
DNA and RNA sequences are linked by what bonds at what position?
Phosphodiester bonds between the 3’ sugar of one nucleotide and the 5’ sugar of the nest
are DNA strands antiparallel or parallel?
antiparallel
rRNA’s main job?
complexed with proteins to form ribosomes, which are involved in translation of mRNA to peptides
What are the two types of Chromatin? Features?
Euchromatin - diffuse and easy to transcribe
Heterochromatin - compacted and difficult to access and trasncribe
What is the charge of DNA
It is overall negatively charged because the sugar phosphate backbone of DNA is very negatively charged around the outside
Does DNA have grooves?
Yes alternating minor and major grooves. Major is much more commonly able to interact with other proteins because it is larger
What are the major conformations of DNA and their features
B -Common - right handed
A - Compact - DNA hybrids - also right handed
Z - Strange - left-handed - formed transiently
of human genes
20,000
what % of human genome is exons
1%
what % of the human genome is intron/exons?
20%
HIstones contain large amount of which elements?
arginine and lysine
histones come together in groups of:
octomers
What is a nucelosome?
An octomer and histomes along with the string of DNA that is wrapped around it
What is a solenoid?
Groups of nucelosomes wound into helical, tubular coils in order to further compact the DNA very tightly
What is a HAT?
Histone acetyltrasnferase - They add acetyl groups to histone tails (arginine/lysine)
How does acetylation of histones affect transcription of DNA
- Increases it
- histone acetylation plays a most crucial role in destabilizing chromatin structure in part because the presence of the acetyl group removes the overall positive charge from the lysine, making it more difficult to neutralize the negative charge of DNA as it is compacted
What is HDAC?
Histone Deacetyltrasnferase
-acetyl groups removed by this enzyme
What is a SIR protein
implicated in longevity
How are HATs and HDACs important in cancer therapeutics?
HDACs are often upregulated in cancer cells, leading to silencing of expression of tumor suppressor genes (such as p53)
HDAC inhibitors are used as anticancer drugs
mRNA structure
5’ cap - leader - start codon - coding region - stop codon - trailer with polyA tail
Main job of tRNA
carry amino acids to ribosomes and ensure they are incorporated into the correct positions of the polypeptide chain
accuracy occurs because pairing of 3 bases in the tRNA anticodon with the corresponding 3 bases in the codon of the mRNA
structure of tRNA
is in a cloverleaf shape
Major enzyme involved in DNA replication?
DNA polymerase
Which direction is DNA replicated?
DNA polymerase moves on the parental strand in the 3’- 5’ direction producing a new strand in the 5’ to 3’ direction
What does DNA polymerase require to begin sythesis
a free 3’ hydroxyl group of a nucleotide primer - which is synthesized by primase
What synthesized the leftover ends of the chromosome
telomerase synthesizes these ends
What does semi-conservative replication mean?
It means when its’ replicated the two parental strands are still there but they are no longer together. Thats why its not completely conservative.
What supplies the energy for continued replication from 5’ to 3’ ?
The energy required to move forward in the 5’ to 3’ direction is provided by the breaking of phosphate bonds
Method for prokaryotic replication?
-SIngle beginning point of replication - OriC
- Can begin another round before the first one ends
Goes bidirectionally
helicase - unwinds the DNA
ssBP - stabilizes the strands and keeps them from reassociating or being cleaved
topoisomerase - relieves the coiling tension causes by opening up the double-stranded DNA
Why can’t stuff replicate 3’ to 5’ ?
This NEVER happens in any organism because it is energetically unfavorable
What happens to the leading and lagging strands at the replication fork?
Leading strand - continuous replication toward the fork 5’ to 3’
Lagging strand- noncontinuous replication toward the fork. must make mulltiple 5’ to 3’ pieces away from the fork and then sort of patch these okasaki fragments together
How prevalent is sickle cell anemia?
- Most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S.
- affects 70-80,000 americans
- especially affects African and Hispanic Americans
- More common where Malaria is BIG (tropical/subtropical)
Tests used to diagnose?
Universal newborn screening hematocrit blood smear HGB electrophoresis GEnetic testing
How does electrophoresis detect SCD?
The sickle blood cells have irregular folding and cuase the charge to be different. Therfore speed through the gel differs from the normal.
What is a gyrase for?
Prokaryotic DNA replication. The gyrase’s function is to relieve the tension put on the DNA by unwinding the strands.
What do topoisomerase 1 and 2 do?
Topoisomerase 1: Enzyme nicks a single strand of the double stranded DNA allowing the strands to rotate. Afterwards fixes it.
Topoisomerase 2: Does a magic trick where it takes two double stranded pieces of DNA and passes one through the other by putting a double-stranded break into one of the strands. This is very important to relieve strain.
Hayflick limit
limit to number of times a normal cell will divide because of telomeres
Give an example of an endogenous and exogenous process that utilizes reverse transcirption
Endogenous - Telomerase
Exogenous - Retroviral integration
Phases of the cell cycle?
G1 - Normal growth
S - Synthesis - DNA is replicated
G2 - Cells prepare to divide
M - Mitosis - BAM
What does Telomerase do?
Attaches to DNA overhangs left over from replication and acts as a template for more nucleotides as well as a reverse transcriptase. It adds to the 3’ end and allows DNA polymerase to have enough space to add nucleotides on the 5’ end
Why is Telomerase a target for anti-cancer drugs
cancer cells many times up regulate telomerase in order to be immortal
What does Thalassemia
result from an altered ratio of alpha:beta globulin. In its severe forms can have similar patholgy to Sickle cell anemia when the inidvidual has one sickle cell allele as well.
What is HbC
Almost the same as sickle cell, only it is the type that swaps out a glutamte for a lysine (not valine like HbS)
What is the relationship between the DNA coding strand, the DNA template strand and mRNA?
basically the coding strand is going to match up with the corresponding opposite nucleotides on the template strand. Just keep in mind that the coding strand is going to be 5’ to 3’ rather than 3
to 5’. If these are switched you have to count backwards. The mRNA is the EXACT SAME as the coding strand, except that the T’s are changed to U’s.
A single mRNA can make how many proteins in Prok vs Euk ?
Prok = many proteins Euk = just one protein
transcription vs replication - source of energy?
hydrolysis of high-energy bonds provides the required energy for both!
RNA polymerase for prokaryotes?
One RNA polymerase, sigma bindis to core enzyme and directs bidning to promoters
RNA polymerase for Eukaryotes?
Pol 1 - produces rRNA
Pol 2 - produces mRNA, miRNA, and lincRNA
Pol 3 - produces tRNA and small rRNA
Do Euk and Prok have introns?
nope, just Euk. Only Euk have splicing
Temporal evens of mRNA
add 5’ cap, poly-A tail added, splicing occurs
Euk/Prok initiation of transcription:
Euk - requires over 100 cofactors
Prok - Polymerase gets going without anything but sigma and some other small stuff
Role of alternative splicing?
Ability to produce a lot of variance with the same amount of genes. Basically you just splice the mRNA’s differently and you’ve got different proteins! BAM!
What are the important nucelttode sequences for splicing?
GU at start and AG at end of splice
Basic mechanism for splicing
forms a lariat out of the intron and it gets dumped off as the two ends connect
lincRNA
long non-coding RNA - used to regulate silencing of genes and stuff - new thing