Midterm 2 Flashcards
Describe denaturing DNA molecules
- denaturation refers to the separation of DNA strands
- can be done using heat, decreasing salt concentrations, or increasing pH
- they can be renatured, which makes hybrid molecules possible (strands from different sources)
How do we measure Tm? What makes Tm higher?
- melting temperature refers to the temperature at which half of the DNA denatures
- higher TM means that the DNA molecule is more stable
- dependant on ionic strength (salt, temperature), length, and GC %
- TM measures absorbency: becomes more absorbent as they denature
What is GC content? How does it impact melting temperature?
GC is the amount of GC bonds (%) present in the molecule: makes for a higher melting temperature/ more stable due to the presence of 3 Hydrogen bonds
Why does salt change the stability of DNA?
- increased salt concentrations can increase stability
- negative phosphorus in the backbone of DNA repel each other and cause instability, however ions in salt (Na+) shields the negative charge and DNA stabilizes!
Why is melting temperature useful?
- for classifying organisms: GC% is specific in species
- identifying rare mutations: mutated melt at different temperatures
- for molecular biology: denaturing DNA used in western blotting and qPCR
Are longer DNA molecules more or less stable?
More!
What are the 3 proposed models for DNA synthesis?
- Conservative, semi-conservative, dispersive
Explain who and what experiment was performed to determine the correct model for DNA replication
- Meselson and stahl produced generations of E.Coli bacteria on N15 and N14 medium
- used equilibrium density gradient centrifugation to determine isotope composition of DNA
- found initial heavy N15 –> replicated to form lighter (50% heavy, 50% light)–> replicated again to see two lines: lightest and 50:50
= semi conservative!
What are the 4 requirements for DNA synthesis?
- Single stranded DNA strand
- all 4 deoxyribonucleoside 5’ triphosphate
- requires DNA polymerase and other enzymes and proteins
- free 3’ OH group : absolute necessity
What are some important rules regarding DNA polymerase?
- only synthesizes in a 5’ to 3’ direction (but template is READ in a 3’ to 5’ direction)
- cannot create new DNA, only elongated chains
- free 3’ OH is required
Describe synthesis at the replication fork
- replication begins at a specific nucleotide sequence: the origin of replication
- synthesis occurs in a replication bubble!
- both DNA strands transcribed simultaneously in the 5’ to 3’ direction (two new strands being made)
What does it mean for replication to be semi-discontinuous?
- leading strand synthesizes normally, unbroken
- lagging strand must go in other way and keep moving back towards the replication fork: forms Okazaki fragments
What are the modes of replication?
Circular genome and linear genome
- circular genome: theta replication and rolling replication
- linear replication: eukaryotes
Describe theta replication
- single replicon (for bacteria = entire chromosome)
- bidirectional at replication fork
- semi-discontinuous
- product: two circular genomes!
Describe rolling replication
- no replication bubble
- continuous
- uncoupling of replication of the two strands of DNA
Describe linear replication in eukaryotes
- multiple: replicons, origins of replication, replication forks
- semi-discontinuous
- bidirectional: travels in two directions, two forks
What are the four stages of replication in eukaryotic DNA replication in prokaryotes ?
- initiation, unwinding, elongation, termination
Describe initiation in prokaryotes
- initiation proteins bind to the origin of replication
- a section of DNA unwinds and proteins bind to it
- single stranded binding proteins keep the strands separated
- helicase binds to lagging strand template and breaks H bonds
Describe unwinding in prokaryotes
- helices breaks hydrogen bonds
- DNA gyrase travels ahead of the fork to break and reform bonds to prevent supercoiling
Describe elongation in prokaryotes
A short stretch of RNA nucleotides (RNA primer) is synthesized by primase
- RNA primer provides a free 3’OH end for DNA polymerase to use
- RNA primer later removed, replaced with nucleotides
–> Why RNA primer? Because production of RNA does not need a 3’ end
Describe E.Coli polymerase
- E.coli has 5 polymerase: Pol I– > Pol V
- all 5 have 5’ to 3’ polymerase activity
- some polymerase have exonuclease activity : so they can remove incorporated nucleotides that do not match the template strand
–> Pol III: primary replication enzyme
–> Pol I: removes and replaces RNA primers with DNA
How does Pol I remove and replace RNA in prokaryotes?
- DNA pol I exonuclease activity starts at 5’ end to remove RNA primers
–> DNA pol I 5’ to 3’ polymerase activity fills in the gap with nucleotides
–> DNA ligase used to heal the nicks in sugar phosphate backbone
What conditions initiate termination in prokaryotes?
termination occurs when two replication forks meet or a special sequence is met
Does eukaryotic DNA have primers?
nope, only polymerase!