Khamisy Flashcards
(91 cards)
DNA breaks can come in different types. mention some
single stranded DNA breaks Base damage bulky dna lesions crosslinks double strand breaks
why can DNA breaks be good
generate immunoglobin diversity
in meiosis - generates diversity
Control the transcription of genes
what are the consequences of unrepaired DNA damage
cell death
cell survival - lead to mutations and cancer
what do DNA topoisomerases do?
make an intentional break in DNA to untangle it
how can the process of transcription be a source of DNA damage
RNA pol II generates positive supercoils in front of the polymerase and negative behind it. RNA can pair with the relaxed DNA in the negative supercoils and form R loops - a major source of genomic instability
how can you visualise R loops in the lab
using s9.6 antibody in immunostaining
how can transcriptional R loops arise
from physiological and pathological sources:
repetitive regions and G rich sequences favour R loop formation.
rDNA sequences, common fragile sites
pathological repeat expansions (C9orf72 ALS, spinocerebellar ataxias, friedrich ataxia)
what are the consequences of R loops
if they form at the end of a DNA strand they can be useful to guide termination of transcription
can relieve topological constrains and supercoiling
major source of DNA breaks if left unresolved
why is the presence of ribose in DNA very dangerous
presence of a single ribose embedded in DNA makes the phosphate bond very labile. Oxygen from the ribose can attack the phosphodiester bond and cleave it (nucleophilic attack)
how/why does ribose contamination take place
erroneous activity of DNA polymerases. The relative abundance of ribonucleotide triphosphates is at least 2 orders of magnitude greater than abundance of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates. Chance that by mistake that the DNA polymerase incorporates e-NTPs during DNA synthesis
what enzyme acts to cleave ribonucleotides from RNA:DNA complexes
RNaseH2
what can spontaneous base loss lead to
abasic sites that can block DNA replication and transcription. These abasic sites are very labile under physiological conditions
give an example of an endogenous base modification
cytosine can lose its amino group by spontaneous deamination to form uracil. This can cause mispairing
what happens if modified bases such as a cytosine becoming uracil are not repaired
During DNA replication can see a transition from GC pairing from the original DNA before modification to AT
give 2 examples of another endogenous deamination reaction that results in modified bases
guanine converts to Xanthine which can’t base pair
5’methylcytosine can convert to thymine which leads to a GC-AT transition
what are some of the consequences of oxidation
can cause thymine to form thyine glycol
oxidation of guanine causes formation of 8-oxoguanine which can lead to GC to TA mutation
DNA is under contant threat endogneously and exogenously. Name some of these threats
End - replication, transcription, ribose, contamination, reaction with molecules in the cell such as water and oxygen
exo - reaction with molecules outside the cell, cosmic rays, man-made chemicals
how can DNA breaks be a friend
can regulate gene expression and can generate diversity in immunoglobin production and/or meiosis
what is the main consequence of base deamination
mispairing - CG-AT transition
are single strand breaks or double strand breaks more common in cells
single strand breaks
what is the first stage of the repair of single strand breaks and what carries it out.
damage detection
carried out by polyADP ribose (PARP)
what is the second step of the repair of single stranded breaks and why is it required
end processing
required to restore the chemistry in the DNA broken ends
what is the third step of the repair of single strand DNA breaks
gap filling - need DNA polymerases to fill the gap
what is the final step to single strand DNA break repair
ligation - DNA ligase seals the nicks