week 2- DNA to RNA bioinformatics

Question 1

what is DNA made up of

Answer 1

DNA is made up of: nucleotides, bases, sugar phosphate molecules and hydrogen bonds

Question 2

why are organisms different

Answer 2

Organisms are different because they inherit different instruction for building cells and body plans

Question 3

all DNA is inheritable expect

Answer 3

viruses

Question 4

what is the Structure of DNA

Answer 4

Nucleotides consist of a sugar-phosphate covalently linked to a base (ATCG)

The DNA strands have opposite chemical polarities and run antiparallel to each- other

In reality the DNA molecule is twisted into a double helix structure

Question 5

How can different cells be produced in an organism if all the cells share the same DNA

Answer 5

Cell differentiation is the process whereby cells progressively become more specialised to perform their mature function(s)

This is due to changes in gene expression: producing different RNAs and proteins.

Question 6

what are clones of cells

Answer 6

• Clones or organism with the same genetic material, the sequence of bases in their DNA is exactly the same

Cloning is the process of producing genetically identical copies of a living organism, cell or DNA fragment

Question 7

how is cloning of a cell achieved

Answer 7

• It can be achieved through various methods such as reproductive cloning where the whole organism is cloned

The DNA is the nucleus (for example the colour of the organism) is copied into the cloning cell

Question 8

what is chromatin

Answer 8

Chromatin is composed of DNA bound to histones in the nucleosome and non histone proteins

Question 9

how many base pairs are wrapped around a histone

Answer 9

Each nucleosome consists of 146 BP of DNA wrapped around an octameric histone core

Question 10

what is the structure of a core of a histone

Answer 10

has an octametic histone structure/ core

This core histone is comprised of 2 xH2A, 2 xH2B, 2 xH3, 2 xH4, which totals out to 8, hence the octameric histone core

Question 11

what is the role of histone tails

Answer 11

• Play an important part in the interactions between the nucleosomes
  Determine how tightly chromatin is compacted

Question 12

what does acetylated or methylation do to the histone tails

Answer 12

The modification of these tails; acetylated or methylated plays an important role in regulating that compaction

Question 13

what is heterochromatin and what does this mean to its expression

Answer 13

• Hertochromatin is highly condensed chromatin that restricts gene expression
  Not highly expressed

Question 14

what is euchromatin

Answer 14

euchromatin is less condensed, gene-rich, and more accessible to transcription.

Question 15

what happens when a gene is located near heterochromatin

Answer 15

ariegation occurs. This causes the gene to undergo inversion (flipped) and can prevent some of the gene being expressed,

hence for an animal with red eyes, the heterochromatin will cause the gene to inverse and it will move into the coding region and block some of the gene from being expressed,

hence the organism will have white patches in their red eyes

Question 16

non coding DNA is called

Answer 16

Non coding DNA is known as introns

Question 17

is how much of codes for a protein

Answer 17

1.5 % very small

Question 18

what phase is most of the cell cycle

Answer 18

interphase