C383 Study Guide for Exam 1
Fall 2015
Basic Information
 Exam 1: Thursday, September 24, 7:15-9:15PM in Rawles Hall 100
 Arrive early for assigned seats
 Bring your student ID. Failure to do so will result in getting your exam back later.
 You may use a NON-PROGRAMMABLE calculator.
 All papers, books, phones, and electronic devices must be in a sealed bag under your seat.
Exam Content: The exam will cover chapters 1-6 and 33. All material covered in class,
homework, and discussion sections could be on the exam. Some major topics include:
Intermolecular forces, solvation, hydrophobic effect, auto-ionization, pH, pKa, pH of strong acid
solutions, weak acids, Henderson-Hasselbalch, ionization state, titration curves, buffer capacity,
polyprotic acids, blood buffer, nucleobase structures, nucleoside, nucleotide, polynucleotide
nomenclature, nucleases, base pairing, basis of double helix stability, denaturation and melting,
semiconservative replication, bacterial DNA structures, chromatin, RNA
structure/stability/function, amino acid structures: stereochemistry and ionization state, essential
amino acids, peptide bonds, disulfide bonds, structural effects of amide resonance, a-helix,
helical wheel, b-sheets, loops and turns, motifs, domains, examples of fibrous and globular
proteins, thermodynamics of protein folding, slating out proteins, size exclusion
chromatography, ion-exchange chromatography, affinity chromatography, SDS-PAGE,
isoelectric focusing, quantitation of protein purification, Edman Degradation, partial digestion,
enzyme rate enhancement, enzyme specificity, recognizing 6 classes of enzyme catalyzed
reactions, free energy, standard free energy, spontaneous and non-spontaneous reactions,
thermodynamics vs. kinetics, binding energy, proximity effect, induced fit, transition state
binding, transition state analogs
Exam Format: The exam is out of 100 points. The first 60 points will be multiple choice, short
answer, fill in the blank type questions. There will be four 10-point problems involving
calculations, structural drawings, or short essay. There will be quantitative problems, but they are
written so that you generally don’t need a calculator. Thermodynamic equations and constants
will be given.