DNA Structure and Replication
The structure of DNA, discovered by Francis, Crick, Wilkins and Franklin
What is the double helix?
The process by which pieces of DNA can be separated using electrical current.
What is gel electrophoresis?
The protein that synthesizes RNA that is complementary to the DNA template.
What is RNA polymerase?
A triplet of nucleotides that encodes an amino acid.
What is a codon?
A long string of nucleotides added to the 3' end of a an mRNA that increases its stability.
What is a poly-A tail?
The end of the DNA strand to which new nucleotides are added during replication.
What is the 3' end?
The laboratory technique that uses cycles of denaturation, annealing, and extension to generate many copies of a specific sequence of DNA.
What is PCR?
The site where transcription begins.
What is the transcription start site?
The site where translation begins.
What is the start codon? (AUG)
The pieces of DNA that are encoded by a gene and transcribed into mRNA but are not part of the mature mRNA that is translated by the ribosome.
What are introns?
The carbon of ribose to which a phosphate group is added to make a nucleotide.
What is the 5' carbon?
Short repetitive sequences of DNA for which alleles with differing numbers of repeats may be present in individuals in the population and thus can be used for identification.
What are STRs?
The consensus sequence found on the coding strand of DNA just upstream of the transcription start site.
What is the promoter?
A sequence of nucleotide triplets that is potentially translatable into a polypeptide and that is determined by the placement of a codon that initiates translation.
What is a reading frame?
A structure that is necessary for transport of an MRNA to the cytoplasm and helps initiate translation.
What is the 5' cap?
The strand of DNA that is replicated in the direction opposite the movement of the replication fork.
What is the lagging strand?
The electrical charge toward which DNA will migrate.
What is positive charge?
The DNA strand on which you expect to find a sequence that matches the sequence of a transcribed mRNA (except for T in DNA vs U in RNA).
What is the coding strand?
A region of transcribed sequence that is not translated into protein but is essential for regulating stability of an mRNA.
What is the 3' UTR?
The process by which multiple isoforms of a protein can be produced from a single gene.
What is alternative splicing?
The complementary strand to 5'-ACGGTCA-3'
What is 5'-TGACCGT-3'? (or 3'-TGCCAGT-5')
Two fragments of DNA are loaded into a gel, where A is larger and B is smaller, the one that will migrate farthest through the gel.
What is B?
A mistake by DNA polymerase in a region outside the gene that could lead to mis-regulation of gene expression or a complete loss of functional protein.
What is a promoter mutation?
The polypeptide generated from this sequence, starting with the first start codon 5'-AGCAUGUUGUUA-3'
What is Met-Leu-Leu?
Two elements of an mRNA that cannot be removed during splicing and must be present in order for the message to be translated.
What are the start and stop codons?