Week 6 Flashcards
What parts makes up a nucleosome?
- Nucleosome = Histone + supercoiled DNA
What are histones?
- What amino acids are they rich in?
- How many base pairs do they bind?
- Also known as 10-nm fibers
- A “bead” that contains 4 pairs of positively charged (rich in Arginine and Lysine) proteins that are supercoiled
- Binds ~146bp
What is linker DNA?
free DNA between two nucleosomes
What is linker histone and what is its function?
binds linker DNA to fold into 30-nm fibers, creating heterochromatin
What are the two chromatin higher-order structures responsible for DNA compaction in interpahse nuclei and metaphase chromosomes?
30-nm Fibers and Loops
What do nucleosomes fold into in terminally differentiated cells?
- 30-nm Fibers
- Nucleosomes fold into this in terminally differentiated cells because DNA is not needed
What do nucleosomes fold into in cells undergoing mitosis or meiosis?
- Loops
- Nucleosomes fold into this in cells undergoing mitosis or meiosis to keep DNA in a more accessible form
What are the two ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers?
SWI/SNF and ISWI
How does SWI/SNF work?
- Uses ATP to open nucleosome so DNA can be more easily read
How does ISWI work?
- Uses ATP to slide supercoiled DNA down, opening up more linker DNA
What are the post-translational histone modifications and what effect do they have on the gene expression
- Methylation – silences gene
- Acetylation – activates gene
- Phosphorylation, ubiquitination, biotinylation
What two enzymes are used in acetylation of histones and what do they do?
- HDAC (histone deacetylase) – promotes nucleosome folding → inactivating gene
- HAT (histone acetyltransferase) – destabilizes nucleosome folding → activating gene
How is retinoic acid involved in the production of granulocytes and what defect in this process causes acute promyelocytic leukemia?
- Retinoic acid promotes the maturation of promyelocutes into granulocytes, one of the main types of WBCs
- In PML the promylocyte does not respond to retinoic acid induction, so promylocytes hyperproliferate.
What is the pathway of normal proteomyelocute differentiation and what steps occur to acetylate a gene?
- Normal Pathway: retinoic acid binds retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARa) → conformational change → HDAC disassociates → HAT binds → acetylation → transcription of gene
What is the defective pathway that ultimately causes the gene to be unexpresed in promyelocytic leukemia?
- Defective Pathway: retinoic acid receptor alpa (RARa) cannot bind retinoic acid → no conformational change → HDAC stays bound → gene stays silenced in nucleosome → no transcription
What are the two main treatments for acute promyelocytic leukemia?
- Treatments
- Increase in [retinoic acid]
- HDAC inhibitors, such as trichostatin A (bad because not specific)
What are the three distinct states of chromatin?
- Euchromatin
- Constituitive Heterochromatin
- Faculative Heterochromatin
What state is euchromatin in and is it active or inactive DNA?
Euchromatin is active and open chromatin
What is Constuitive Heterochromatin?
- Is it active or inactive DNA?
- Where is this usually located?
- Heterochromatin: repressed and condensed chromatin
- Constitutive: centromere region that occurs in all normal cell types during metaphase
What is Faculative Heterochromatin?
- Is it active or inactive DNA?
- Where is this usually located?
- Heterochromatin: repressed and condensed chromatin
- Facultative: accumulated condensed chromatin that occurs in non-dividing cells (including X inactivation)
What is the role of histone methylation?
- Histone methylation: does not affect histone charge, but promotes condensation and gene silencing
What enzyme accomplishes methylation of histones and what is the pathway of how they work?
- Histone methyltransferases: one methylated histone recruits heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) → HP1 recruits more histone methyltransferases in positive feedback loop
Define epigenetics.
- Epigenetics: a change in the properties of a cell (phenotype) that is inherited but that does not represent a change in genetic information
What are 4 processes that are considered to be epigenetic?
- Developmentally regulated transcriptional factors
- Post-translational histone modifications
- Regulatory RNA transcription
- DNA methylation reproduced through cell divisions
How is DNA methylation maintained through several rounds of replication?
- After replication, CpG dinucleotide sequences maintain methylation by DNA-methyltransferases
- How does genomic imprinting work in terms of DNA methylation?
- What can a defect in this process lead to?
- Genomic Imprinting: parental-origin where certain alleles can be methylated (read: inactivated), leading to the expression of the other allele coding for a gene
- A defect in this process leads to Beckwith-Wiedeman Syndrome
How can DNA methylation lead to cancer?
- Hypomethylation: mitotic recombination, genomic instability
- Hypermethylation: loss of tumor suppressor gene activity
- 5-aza-2’deoxycytidine inhibits DNA methyltransferases
Define aneuploidy.
- organisms whose chromosome number differs from the WT by part of a single chromosome set
How does aneuploidy appear and name 5 disorders (the chromosome they effect and symptoms asssociated with them)?
- 2n-1 is monosomic
- 2n+1 is trisomic
- Disorders (13, 18, 21 → PED)
- Trisomy 13 – Patau Syndrome: 47,XX,+13
- Trisomy 18 – Edward Syndrome: 47,XX,+18
- Trisomy 21 – Down Syndrome: 47,XX,+21
- Monosomy X – Turner Syndrome: 45,X
- Female with infertility and adult stature
- Trisomy XXY – Klinefelter Syndrome: 47,XXY
- Male with tall stature, long extremities, hypogonadism, and breasts
Define polyploidy and what are some examples?
- Polyploidy – cells/organisms that have more than two pairs of all of the homologous chromosomes including sex chromosomes
- Examples: 69,XXX, 69,XXY, 69,XYY
Define balanced structural chromosomal abnormalities and the two types?
- Balanced Structural Chromosomal Abnormalities: do not change the number of alleles in affected areas
- Inversion
- Translocation
How does inversion occur on chromosomes?
How does translocation occur in chromosomes?
What are unbalanced structural abnormalities and what are the two types?
- Unbalanced Structural Chromosomal Abnormalities: change the number of alleles in the affected area
- Deletion
- Duplication
How does deletion work on chromosomes?
How does duplication work on chromosomes?
List two chromosomal deletion diseases.
- Cri-du-chat (5p deletion)
- Wolf Hirshhorn (4p deletion)
What mutation occurs in Cri-du-chat, where does it occur, and what are some characteristics of the disease?
- Cri-du-chat
- 5p monosomy – deletion of the short arm of chromosome 5
- Characteristics: cry similar to meowing kitten, widely spaced eyes, developmental delay
What mutation occurs in Wolf-Hirschhorn, where does it occur, and what are some characteristics of the disease?
- Wolf-Hirschhorn
- 4p- syndrome – deletion of the short arm of chromosome 4
- Characteristics: seizures, developmental delays, heart defects
How are chromosomal microdeletions detected?
- Chromosomal microdeletions cannot be detected by karyotyping but by FISH (uses WBCs to fluoresce chromosomes)
What is a type of chromosomal microdeletion disease?
- What chromosome and what gene is included in the deletion?
- What are some characteristics?
- Williams Syndrome
- Chromosomal 7 microdeletion, including the gene elastin
- Characteristics: “cocktail party” personality, circulatory system and heart defects
Compare and contrast the germline chromosomal mutation and somatic chromosomal mutations.
- Germline Chromosomal Mutations
- Mutations during meiosis that may affect all cells in the offspring
- Most large chromosomal deletions result in spontaneous abortion
- Somatic Chromosomal Mutations
- Mutations occur during mitosis of terminally differentiated cells that affects certain tissues
What can occur when tumor supressors are inactivated?
- When tumor suppressors are inactivated, somatic chromosomal abnormalities can lead to cancer
Define driver mutations and passenger mutations.
- Driver Mutations: small number of chromosomal abnormalities that cause cancer
- Passenger Mutations: many other chromosomal abnormalities that result from the proliferation of cancer cells
What occurs in chronic myeloid leukemia?
- Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: translocation and subsequent fusion of genes on chromosome 9 and chromosome 22 →increased expression of tyrosine kinase → cancer
- Imatinib binds to tyrosine kinase → inactivation
What occurs in Burkitt’s Lymphoma?
- Burkitt’s Lymphoma: translocation and subsequent fusion of genes on chromosome 8 and 14 → overexpression of c-myc → transcription of genes that stimulate cell proliferation
Define the process of transcription.
- Transcription – synthesis of RNA from a DNA template
What are the different types of RNA polymerases in eukaryotes?
- Where are they located?
- What do they synthesize?
RNA Polymerases R MT (are empty).
I -R
II - M
III - T
What two drugs act on RNA polymerases and what polymerases do they act on?
- Drugs
- Alpha-amanitin (from a mushroom) – affects RNA polymerase II and III
- Rifampicin – inhibits prokaryotic RNA polymerase