Genome
Understand the central dogma and desribe the steps of information flow
Understand the differences in chromosome, gene expression and arrangements between euharyotic and prokaryotic chromosomes
Describe the general features of gene organization on eukaryotic and prokaryotic chromosomes
Describe the role of RNA molecules as a link between genes and proteins
Identify the 5’to 3’ polarity of DNA and RNA polymers and explain why such polarity is important
Distinguish between the structures of the monomers in DNA and RNA
Relate DNA stability (denaturation and renaturation) to base-stacking and hydrogen bonding between bases
Describe the relationship between DNA structure and the Watson-Crick base pair rules (Chargaff’s rules)
Describe how single-stranded nucleic acids can fold, what structures they can make, and possible consequences of these structures
Rationalize why polypeptides and RNA molecules can act as enzymes, but DNA cannot
Contrast the different types of RNA molecules: rRNA, tRNA, mRNA
Identify the regions of DNA that can be used by proteins to recognize specific DNA sequences
Prokayriotic Transcription
Describe the steps of information flow in transcription and translation
Describe what is meant by a “consensus sequence” and be able to determine a consensus sequence from a simple data set
Describe the role of RNA polymerase and promoters in transcription
Define what is meant by promoter, how if functions and how it is recognized by cellular enzymes
Describe the process of transcription of a gene and an operon
Indicate the critical points where the flow is controlled and kept specific
Describe the structure of the RNA polymerase including the “sigma factor”
Translation
Describe why the genetic code is termed “redundant” and “non-overlapping”
Describe the roles of the initiation codon, termination codons and the ribosome binding sites on a Bacterial mRNA
Explain what is meant by “wobble” in tRNA binding
Describe the cycle of binding of the ribosomes and tRNA in protein synthesis
Explain the function of amino acyl tRNA synthetase enzymes and why they are described as “the translators” of the genetic information
Describe in general terms the structure of a ribosome, including the RNA and protein components
Eukaryotic Transcription and Translation
Describe the roles of the three RNA polymerases in Eukaryotes
Contrast the steps of transcription and translation in eukaryotes to the parallel step in prokaryotes
Describe the role of condensation of the histones in gene expression
Describe the role of the important DNA sequences (TATA box, promoter proximal elements in regulation of eukaryotic transcription and how that compares to prokaryotes
Understand the process of capping, splicing and poly-adenylation of eukaryotic mRNAs and mRNA stability
Describe the relationship between introns and the coding region for a typical eukaryotic gene and how it relates to protein differences in different cells
Indicate the critical points where the information flow is controlled and kept specific in eukaryotes
Describe the factors that change gene expression in eukaryotes as compared to prokaryotes
