Gene regulation I
These are regions in bacterial genomes where multiple structural genes that are involved in the same biochemical pathway are located. There is also a shared promoter and a shared operator.
What is an operon?
This molecule binds to the repressor of the trp operon, allowing the repressor to bind to its corresponding operator sequence.
What is tryptophan?
This type of protein interacts with Cdk; the B version of it is often disregulated in cancer.
What is cyclin?
These target a PCR amplification to a specific region of DNA.
What are primers?
This provides a functional copy of a gene to someone who needs it (or silences a bad copy of a gene!).
What is gene therapy?
The absence of this in cells causes the accumulation of cAMP. CAP and cAMP together can then bind to the promoter of the lac operon and help turn it on.
What is glucose?
This term describes two phenomena: the use of alternate 3' cleavage sites in mRNA processing, and the variation in how some introns (plus sometimes exons!) are spliced out of mRNA.
What is alternative processing?
These genes encode negative regulators of the cell cycle; if they're mutated, the cell cycle may not be slowed down when it should be.
What are tumor suppressor genes?
This technique (Northern, Southern, or Western) involves running RNA, DNA, or protein on a gel, transferring it to a nylon membrane, and probing for specific sequences.
What is blotting?
This is a form of bacterial defense against invaders; scientists can use this process, add donor DNA with desired mutations, and edit target genes accordingly.
What is CRISPR?
These are heritable modifications to chromatin structure (thru DNA methylation, histone modification, and/or nucleosome repositioning), which affect gene expression.
What are epigenetic changes?
In addition to at regulatory promoters, transcriptional activators/repressors can bind here and influence the level of gene expression.
What is an enhancer?
These genes encode positive regulators of the cell cycle. When they're mutated, the cell cycle can move too quickly, bypass checkpoints, etc. This refers to the un-mutated genes.
What are proto-oncogenes?
This type of PCR involves converting mRNA to cDNA, amplifying specific genes, and detecting the level of fluorescence that is produced as a measure of gene expression.
What is qRT-PCR?
These are known sequences in the genome that are linked to phenotypes of interest.
What are genetic markers?
These two modifications to eukaryotic pre-mRNA increase its stability and help a ribosome bind to it.
What are 5' cap and poly-A tail?
This post-translational modification targets a protein for degradation by the proteasome.
What is ubiquitination?
This is a positive regulator of the cell cycle that has been mutated and is now causing the cycle to progress too quickly/when it shouldn't.
What are oncogenes?
You can use restriction enzymes on a gene of interest and on this to put the gene of interest inside. This should also include antibiotic resistance.
What is a plasmid?
This process involves sequencing a bacterial community to figure out what species are present.
What is metagenomics?
These are small RNA molecules that are produced by Dicer and join with a RISC to silence target genes.
What are miRNAs?
These flank the coding region of a gene and are site where RNA-binding proteins can latch on (and thus influence the stability of mRNA).
What are UTRs?
In essence, cancer is a collection of disease with an alteration in this.
What is gene expression?
This process involves running DNA on a gel to look for differences among individuals in RFLPs, VNTRs, and/or microsatellites.
What is DNA fingerprinting?
This procedure makes an identical copy of something. We can use it to copy a gene out of one organism and into a plasmid, to copy a cell and make more of it, or to copy an entire organism and make a new individual that is genetically identical.
What is cloning?