AP151 DNA STRUCTURE AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS STUDY GUIDE
READ:
TEXT BOOK
 Chapter 2 Pgs 44-46 (deoxyribonucleic acid – ribonucleic acid)
 Chapter 3 Pgs 63-70. Section 3.3 stop at “Functions of Endoplasmic Reticulum”. SKIP RNA
interference
 Chapter 3 pg 81-82 “epigenetic inheritance”
VISUAL ANALOGY GUIDE
 Pg 16-19
GOAL:
To understand the relationship between DNA function and proteins and how mutations affect the process of
protein synthesis
MAIN OBJECTIVES: You should be able to do the following
 Describe the structure and function of DNA including how base sequences and complementary pairing
is essential to DNA function.
 Describe how DNA is organized into chromosomes/chromatin, genes, noncoding (including regulatory)
DNA, and how histone/epigenetics influences genetic expression.
 Describe the process of replication
 Describe the structure of RNA and the functions of mRNA and tRNA in protein synthesis
 Explain the process and goal of transcription
 Explain the process and goal of translation
 Explain how the order of DNA bases is used to assemble a protein.
 Explain what a mutation is and how it affects protein synthesis
PRACTICE PROBLEMS
Describe the structure and function of DNA including how base sequences and complementary pairing is
essential to DNA function.
1. What are the smaller molecules that combine to form DNA and RNA? (nucleic acids)
2. What are the three smaller molecular subunits that combine to form nucleotides? (nucleic Acids)
3. What two parts of a nucleotide bond together to form the “backbone” of a DNA molecule?
(Deoxyribonucleic acid)
4. What part of nucleotides bond to join the two nucleotide strands together? (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
5. What kind of chemical bond holds the base of one nucleotide to the base of another nucleotide?
(Deoxyribonucleic acid)
6. What kind of chemical bond connects the phosphate of one nucleotide to the sugar of another
nucleotide? (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
7. List the different DNA bases? How many different DNA bases are there? (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
8. What combination of bases can bind to one another (i.e., complementary base pairing)
(Deoxyribonucleic acid)
9. Why is complementary base pairing important, what does it allow? (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
10. What part/aspect of DNA structure “contains information”?
11. What is the function of DNA? (Deoxyribonucleic acid, and lecture)
Describe how DNA is organized into chromosomes/chromatin, genes, noncoding (including regulatory)
DNA, and how histone/epigenetics influences genetic expression.
12. What is a gene?
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Approximately how many genes do humans have? Approximately how many proteins do we make?
What is regulatory DNA? What is its function?
Approximately what percent of DNA contains instructions on how to make a protein?
What is the relationship between DNA and histone?
What is chromatin?
What is epigenetics (as described in lecture, don’t go into any great detail)?
How does histone, methylation/demethylation, and/or acetylation/deacetylation have on the ability of
a gene to be “turned on” or “accessed”?
20. Do epigenetic effects involve the order of DNA bases (i.e., base sequences)?
21. Are epigenetic affects heritable (i.e., can they be passed from parent to child)?
Describe the process of replication
22. What is replication?
23. Why does DNA need to be replicated?
24. When is DNA replicated (don’t get too specific, just stay general)?
25. Describe the main events and enzymes involved with DNA replication?
26. What is an error in DNA replication called?
Describe the structure of RNA and the functions of mRNA and tRNA
27. How is the structure of RNA different than that of DNA? How is the structure the same? (Compare
DNA and RNA readings)
28. List the 3 types of RNA mentioned in class that are important in making proteins.
29. What are the smaller molecular subunits that combine to form RNA? (nucleic acids)
30. What are the three smaller molecular subunits that combine to form RNA nucleotides? (nucleic Acids)
31. What two parts of a nucleotide bond together to form the “backbone” of a RNA molecule?
(Deoxyribonucleic acid)
32. What kind of chemical bond connects the phosphate of one nucleotide to the sugar of another
nucleotide?
33. List the different RNA bases? How many different RNA bases are there? (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
34. Describe the complementary base pairs that can form between DNA and RNA.
35. Describe the complementary base pairs that can form between RNA and RNA?
36. What is a codon?
37. What is the function of mRNA?
38. What is the function of tRNA?
Explain the process and goal of transcription
39. Where does transcription take place within a cell?
40. What kind of molecule is created by the process of transcription?
41. Describe the steps of transcription as describe in text and lecture?
42. What is the job of RNA polymerase in transcription?
43. What is the template strand?
44. What is the role of the promoter region and transcriptional factors/regulatory molecules (e.g.,
hormones) in transcription? Just keep this simple and basic and to the level of detail in which it was addressed in lecture
45. What happens to mRNA after a gene has been transcribed?
46. What is an intron? Exon?
47. What happens during post-transcriptional modification of mRNA (the book calls this pre-mRNA)?
48. Explain how post-transcriptional modification allows a relatively small number of genes to code for a
relatively large number of proteins
Explain the process and goal of translation
49. What kind of molecule is created during translation?
50. Where does transcription take place within a cell?
51. Describe the process of translation as described in class and shown on animations (but don’t worry
about ribosomal binding sites).
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
What is the job of tRNA in translation?
What is an anticodon?
What is the role of mRNA in translation?
What happens to the amino acids as they are delivered/put into place within a ribosome?
Why is it important that each type of tRNA can only carry one type of amino acid? What would
happen if each type/variety of tRNA could carry more than one type of amino acid?
57. Why is it important that tRNA has to bind mRNA according to complementary base-pairing rules?
58. Be able to read a mRNA codon chart
59. How does the order of DNA bases relate to the order of amino acids in a protein?
60. Explain the idea of the “genetic code”
Explain what a mutation is and how it affects protein synthesis
61. What is a mutation?
62. What is a substitution? What is a deletion? An insertion?
63. What is a frameshift?
64. Explain how mutations might change the protein produced during translation?
65. What is a SNP?
PRACTICE QUESTIONS FROM TEXT
#6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15,
You rock if you can explain 19, 20, 22, & 24