gentech flashcards

Question 1

what is the purpose of adult stem cells and how do they differentiate?

Answer 1

-to repalce old or damaged cells
-multipotent, so they only generate into the cell type where they are located

Question 2

How are adult stem cells triggered?

Answer 2

turned on and off based on environmental or chemical changes

Question 3

What is stemness and what happens when it is uncontrolled?

Answer 3

the ability of stem cells to self-renw and differentiate
0leads to cancers that are more difficult to treat because it causes the cancer cells to differentiate into different types of cancer cells, rendering treatment for one cell type ineffective.

Question 4

what are embryonic stem cells?

Answer 4

cells that can differentiate into any cell in the body (PLURIPOTENT)

Question 5

what doe pluripotent mean?

Answer 5

(of a cell) able to differentiate into every cell type in the body

Question 6

what does multipotent mean?

Answer 6

can only differentiate into a limited number of cell types (adult stem cells could be described as multipotent)

Question 7

what are cancer stem cells?

Answer 7

cancer cells that behave like stem cells

Question 8

What are induced pluripotent stem cells (ipscs)

Answer 8

normal adult cells that scientists reprogram to act like embryonic stem cells

Question 9

what are the applications of induced pluripotent stem cells?

Answer 9

used in cell replacement therapy ( damaged tissues can be repaired by IPSC reproduction), tissue regeneration,

Question 10

what is asymmetric mitosis? why is it important

Answer 10

a special type of cell division where one daughter cell remains a stem cell while the other remains a specialized cell
-this is how cell differentiation occurs, and helps maintain the stem cell population

Question 11

what is gene expression?

Answer 11

the process by which information form DNA is used to make proteins (controls cell functions)

Question 12

what processes regulate gene expression?

Answer 12

transcription factors, microRNA, epigenetics, and chromatin modification

Question 13

what are transcription factors?

Answer 13

proteins that bind to DNA and act as switches that turn genes on or off
-determine what genes are being expressed

Question 14

what is microRNA?

Answer 14

small, non-protein coding RNA molecules that block the produiction of certain proteins by preventing mRNA from being translated

Question 15

epigenetics

Answer 15

changes in gene expression that occur as a result of chromatin modification, and do not alter the DNA sequence

Question 16

what processes influence epigenetics?

Answer 16

Chromatin modification, which occurs through DNA methylation and histone acetylation

Question 17

what causes chromatin modification?

Answer 17

environment, diet, stress, and other biochemical and environmental factors

Question 18

what is DNA methylation?

Answer 18

adding a methyl group which tightens chromatin, silencing genes

Question 19

histone acetylation

Answer 19

adding an acetyl group which loosens chromatin, making genes more accessible for transcription

Question 20

what is a somatic cell?

Answer 20

any bodily cell that is not involved in reproduction
-contain a full lset of chromosomes, while reproductive cells contain half

Question 21

hat is somatic cell nuclear transfer and what process is it used in?

Answer 21

the nucleus of a somatic cell is transferred into an egg cell with a removed nucleus. This is then stimulated to develop into an an embryo WITHOUT sperm, creating an offspring that is a genetic copy of the parent.
- used in cloning

Question 22

reproductive cloning?

Answer 22

cloning done to create a genetically identical organism

Question 23

what is therapeutic cloning?

Answer 23

the cloning of stem cells for medical treatment.
0 the embryo is used to grow embryonic stem cells, which are then inserted into a body to regenerate tissues and cells.

Question 24

what are multifactorial traits?

Answer 24

traits determined by multiple factors (genes, chemical, and environmental)

Question 25

what is gwas (genome wide assoication studies)

Answer 25

a research method that compards the DNA of many people to determine which genetic variations (mutations) are linked to a certain disease -utilizes the DNA MICRORARRAY

Question 26

DNA microarray

Answer 26

a lab tool used to study many genes at once and detect genetic differences or changes in gene expression

Question 27

what causes changes in gene expression

Answer 27

EPIGENETICS( aka DNA methylation and histone acetylation)

Question 28

what are SNPS (single nucleotide polymorphisms)

Answer 28

specific/a single point mutation that affects many people

Question 29

what are CNVs?( copy number variations) what do they influence?

Answer 29

large section of DNA that are duplicated or missing - can influence disease susceptibility

Question 30

what is the common disesase/common variant hypothesis?

Answer 30

common diseases are influence by common/specific genetic variations(aka SNPs an CNV)

Question 31

what is whole genome evaluation/sequencing?

Answer 31

a technology that read all of a person's DNA and helps detect rare mutation and predict disease risk

Question 32

what is cell replacement therapy and what kind of cell does it use?

Answer 32

-cell replacement therapy usings IPS/ induced pluripotent stem cells, which are adult stem cells programmed to act like embryonic cells. - cell replacement therapy is the replacement of damaged or lost cells with healthy ones using pluripotent stem cells which can turn into any cell type for repairing tissues

Question 33

what are chimeric embryos?

Answer 33

embryos contain cells from two different species

Question 34

what is CRISPR? what is cas9? how od they work together to edit the genome?

Answer 34

-CRISPR is a genetic sequence fund in bacteria that stores a memory of piece of viral DNA -cas9 is an enzyme that cuts DNA at a specific location -crispr locates the problematic gene, which cas9 cuts, modifies, and replaces it