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whether a particular region of DNA is accessible for gene expression
What does the manner of DNA storage on the histone and the chemical modifications of the histone itself regulate?
regions where DNA replication is initiated to make two copies of the chromosome
What are replication origins?
Telomeres
Long stretches of repetitive sequence that cap the ends of the linear chromosomes are called what?
bacteria and archaea
What are prokaryotes?
on a single large, circular chromosome
How do prokaryotes store their genomes?
a remnant circular chromosome with a small number of genes
What type of chromosome do some eukaryotic organelles contain?
plasmids
Small circles of DNA that encode only a few genes and are transferable between individuals are called what?
horizontal gene transfer
What allows genes for antibiotic resistance to be passed between individual cells?
prokaryotes
What type of organism has relatively gene dense chromosomes?
eukaryotes
Regions of DNA that serve no obvious function are often found in what type of organism?
DNA without an identified function
What is referred to as "junk DNA"?
barely 2%
What percentage of the human genome is made of protein coding DNA?
about 80%
What percentage of bases in the human genome are expressed by protein coding DNA
often only a small part
Often, how large a part of the structure of a gene is the protein coding sequence?
the actual protein coding sequence
What often plays only a small part in the structure of a gene?
DNA regions that are not transcribed
What is one of the many elements that the structure of a gene consists of?
untranslated regions of the RNA
What is another element of the structure of a gene?
DNA regions that are not transcribed as well as untranslated regions of the RNA
What elements does the structure of a gene consist of?
a regulatory sequence
What do all genes contain that is required for their expression?
by transcription factors and RNA polymerase
How is a promoter sequence recognized?
messenger RNAs (mRNA) that differ in how far they extend in the 5' end
What results when genes have more than one promoter?
bind the transcription machinery well
What does a "strong" promoter sequence do?
bind poorly and initiate transcription less frequently
What does a "weak" promoter sequence do?
by binding to transcription factors
How do regulatory regions act?
the DNA to loop
What happens when a regulatory region binds to transcription factors?
by binding an activator protein
How do enhancers increase transcription?
helps to recruit the RNA polymerase to the promoter
What happens after an enhancer binds an activator protein?
silencers bind repressor proteins
What causes DNA to be less available for RNA polymerase?
untranslated regions
What is at both ends of the transcribed pre-mRNA?
untranslated regions
Where are the ribosome binding site, terminator and start and stop codons located on transcribed pre-mRNA?
untranslated introns
What do most eukaryotic open reading frames contain?
The sequences at the ends of the introns
What dictates the splice sites to generate the final mature mRNA?
the splice sites to generate the final mature mRNA
What encodes the protein or RNA product?
operons
What are most prokaryotic genes organized into?
a unit
What are multiple protein coding sequences transcribed as?
related functions
What sort of functions do the products of operon genes typically have?
the same regulatory network
What type of network are the products of operon genes typically involved with?
multiple protein-coding sequences
What type of coding sequences do prokaryotic genes typically have?
enhancers
What is an example of a regulatory region of a gene that does not have to close to the coding sequence?
because the intervening DNA can be looped out to bring the gene and its regulatory region into proximity
Why do some regulatory regions of a gene not have to be close to the coding sequence?
a gene's introns
What part of a gene can be much larger than its exons?
in trans
How do regulatory regions on different chromosomes operate in order to allow regions on different chromosomes to come into contact with one another?
different chromosomes
Where can regulatory regions be found?
the model that one gene makes one protein.
What model did early work in molecular genetics suggest?
the discovery of genes that can encode multiple proteins
What discovery caused the model that one gene makes one protein to be refined?
by alternative splicing and coding sequences
How do genes encode multiple proteins?
split in short section across the genome
How are alternative splicing and coding sequences distributed?
concatenated by trans-splicing.
In order for a gene to encode multiple proteins, how must its mRNAs be arranged?
A broad operational definition
What sort of definition can be used to conveniently encompass the complexity of diverse phenomena?
a union of genomic sequences encoding a coherent set of potentially overlapping functional products
What is the broad operational definition of a gene?
their specific DNA loci
What does the typical definition of a gene categorize genes by?
their functional products (proteins or RNA)
What does the broad operational definition of gene categorize genes by?
regulatory elements
What does the broad operational definition of a gene classify as gene-associated regions?
two steps are required
How many steps are required to read the information encoded in a gene's DNA and produce the specified protein?
the gene's DNA is transcribed to messenger RNA (mRNA)
What is the first step to read the information encoded in a gene's DNA and produce the protein it specifies?
mRNA is translated to protein
What is the second step to read the information encoded in a gene's DNA and produce the protein it specifies?
the first step
What step must RNA-coding genes still go through?
gene expression
What is the process of producing a biologically functional molecule of either RNA or protein called?
The nucleotide sequence of a gene's DNA
What specifies the amino acid sequence of a protein?
codons
What are sets of three nucleotides known as?
a specific amino acid
What does each codon correspond to?
a "start codon", and three "stop codons"
What indicates the beginning and end of the protein coding region?
There are 64 possible codons (four possible nucleotides at each of three positions, hence 43 possible codons)
How many possible codons are there?
a single-stranded RNA molecule known as messenger RNA
What does transcription produce?
complementary to the DNA from which it was transcribed
How does the nucleotide sequence of mRNA compare to DNA?
The gene's DNA
What is used as a template to generate a complementary mRNA?
because it is synthesised as the complement of the template strand
Why does the mRNA match the sequence of the gene's DNA coding strand?
an RNA polymerase
What is the enzyme called that performs transcription?
in the cytoplasm
Where does transcription occur in prokaryotes?
at the 5' end of the RNA
If the transcription is very long, where on the RNA may translation begin?
transcription occurs in the nucleus
Where does transcription occur in eukaryotes?
in the nucleus
Where does a eukaryote store the cell's DNA?
the primary transcript
What is the RNA molecule produced by the polymerase known as?
Translation
What is the process by which a mature mRNA molecule is used as a template for synthesizing a new protein called?
large complexes of RNA and protein
What does a ribosome consist of?
carrying out the chemical reactions to add new amino acids to a growing polypeptide chain
What is a ribosome responsible for?
via interactions with specialized RNA molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA)
How is the genetic code read?
three
How many unpaired bases does each tRNA have?
only when the product is needed
When are genes expressed?
available nutrients, temperature and other stresses
What are examples of a cell's external environment?
cell division cycle, metabolism, infection status
What are examples of a cell's internal environment?
at any step
At which step can gene expression be regulated?
The regulation of lactose metabolism genes in E. coli
What example of post-translational modification of a protein was first described in 1961?
A typical protein-coding gene
What is first copied into RNA as an intermediate in the manufacture of the final protein product?
the RNA molecules
In some cases, what are the actual functional products?
the synthesis of ribosomal RNA and transfer RNA
What sort of synthesis occurs when the RNA molecules are the actual functional products?
enzymatic function
What sort of function are ribozymes capable of?
non-coding RNA genes
What are the DNA sequences from which ribozymes are transcribed known as?
in the form of RNA
In what form do some viruses store their entire genome?
Because they use RNA to store genes
Why do the cellular hosts of some viruses not have to wait for transcription to synthesize their proteins?
HIV
What is one type of an RNA retrovirus?
reverse transcription
What sort of transcription does the genome of HIV require before its proteins can be synthesized?
in plants and very rarely in animals
Besides viruses, where has RNA-mediated epigenetic inheritance been observed?
from their parents
Where do organisms inherit their genes from?
a complete copy
How much of an asexual organism's genome is inherited from its parents?
two copies of each chromosome
How many copies of each chromosome does a sexual organism have?
one complete set from each parent
How many sets of chromosomes does a sexual organism inherit from each parent?
because they inherit one complete set from each parent
Why do sexual organisms have two copies of each chromosome?
variations in its genotype
According to Mendelian inheritance, what is part of the cause of variations in an organism's phenotype?
observable physical and behavioral characteristics
What sort of characteristics are described by an organism's phenotype?