Week 6 Flashcards
3’ end processing
- consensus sequences direct cleavage and polyadenylation of the 3’ end
- 3’ end processing proteins move from CTD to mRNA
- cleavage and addition of a poly-A 3’ tail along with Poly A-binding proteins result in the mature mRNA
state 4 features of the genetic code
- universal for almost all genomes
- codons are read as mRNA triplets encoding all 20 amino acids
- redundancy: multiple codons for most amino acids
state the stop and start codons
AUG - methionine - start
UAA/UAG/UGA - stop codons (don’t code for an AA)
describe the possible mutations that could occur within a reading frame
- nucleotide-pair substitution: silent (the amino acid does not change)
- nucleotide-pair substitution: missense (the amino acid is changed into a different amino acid)
- nucleotide-pair substitution: nonsense (leads to a premature stop codon)
- 1 nucleotide-pair deletion (frameshift causing immediate missense - all following amino acids likely to be wrong)
- 1 nucleotide-pair insertion (frameshift causing immediate nonsense)
- 3 nucleotide-pair deletion (no frameshift, but amino acid changes)
why is the cloverleaf appearance of tRNA so important?
- tRNA acts as an adaptor molecule
- its secondary structure is critical to RNA function
- the anticodon loops allows the anticodon to base pair with the mRNA codon in a complementary and antiparallel way
draw a standard tRNA structure and label it
are there the same number of tRNAs as there are anti-codons?
if we take out the stop codons, we have 61 possible anti-codons, but bacteria have 31 tRNAs and humans have 48.
two possible strategies:
- more than 1 tRNA for many amino acids
- some tRNAs can recognise and base pair with more than one codon
describe the wobble position of a tRNA molecule
- third base pair between codons/anticodons
- flexible: base pair does not have to be perfect
- saves the number of tRNAs that have to be produced
- may ensure mutations have a lesser effect
wobble codon base and possible anticodon bases in bacteria
U = A, G, I
C = G, I
A = U, I
G = C, U
wobble codon base and possible anticodon bases in eukaryotes
U = A, G, I
C = G, I
A = U
G = C
what is I?
Inosine, which represents a post-transcriptional modification of adenosine
seen the presence of a wobble position, how fidelity in base pairing between codons and anticodons ensured?
- sequential steps in ensuring fidelity:
- aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases: check compatibility of amino acid and tRNA then makes a high-energy bond using ATP
- base pairing between mRNA and tRNA in ribosome - error correction by aminoacyl tRNA synthetase:
- by hydrolytic editing to break the high energy between the tRNA and amino acid
how is recognition of a specific tRNA by its synthetase achieved?
- identifying the tRNA anticodon nucleotides
- recognising the nucleotide sequence of the acceptor stem/arm
- reading nucleotide sequences at additional positions on the tRNA
label a diagram of tRNA synthetase binding to tRNA
location of ribosomes in a eukaryotic cell
- on endoplasmic reticulum
- in cytosol
location of ribosomes in a prokaryotic cell
- in cytosol
distinguish between the function of the large and small ribosomal subunit
The small subunit (40S in eukaryotes) decodes the genetic message and the large subunit (60S in eukaryotes) catalyzes peptide bond formation.
how is peptide synthesis made energetically favourable?
with the energy stored in covalent bond between the amino acid and the tRNA in P site
A, P, E site
A site - aminoacyl site - aminoacylated tRNA enters here
P site - peptide site - where the peptide bond is formed
E site - exit site
what catalyses the formation of the peptide bond?
peptidyl transferase activity of the rRNA in the large subunit - ensures the high energy bond between the amino acid and the tRNA provides the energy for forming the new peptide bond
which translocates first - the large or the small ribosomal subunit?
the large subunits translocates first; then, the small subunit
describe the structure of a prokaryotic ribosome (eukaryotic is very similar)
- ribosome is a ribozyme
- L1 protein is involved in folding and stabilising RNAs
- 5S RNA: component of the large ribosomal subunit thought to enhance protein synthesis by stabilization of a ribosome structure
- 23S rRNA: for tRNA binding in the P site of the large ribosomal subunit
elongation factors
- EF-Tu (pro) / EF1 (eu) checks aminoacyl tRNA.
- if base pairing is not correct, EF-Tu is not released and peptide bond can’t form.
- if base-pairing is correct, GTP is hydrolysed and EF-Tu is released
- there is also a slight delay before the formation of the peptide bond which allows one last check for accurate base pairing - EF-G (pro / EF2 (eu) helps the ribosome to move the mRNA forward one codon and helps speed up elongation of the polypeptide chain
- requires energy from hydrolysis of GTP-> GDP
- without this EF, translation is very slow
can ribosomes perform protein synthesis without the aid of elongation factors?
yes, but it is much slower, more inefficient, and less accurate