PHA 6852 Molecular Biology and DNA Discussion Questions
I’m working on a biology multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
Describe the mechanism in bacteria for repair of DNA containing mismatches, chemically modified bases, and double strand breaks
Explain how base deamination can cause single base pair mutations
Describe the events in the formation and resolution of Holliday structures
What are translesion polymerases? What risks do they pose to the cell?
Explain what the role is of RecA in strand exchange. Find and briefly discuss a journal article that focuses on this protein.
Discuss the structural organization and mechanism for movement of DNA-only transposons, retroviral-like retrotransposons and non-retroviral retrotransposons.
Describe in detail how the cut-and-paste mechanism works.
Contrast the mechanism of transposition between retrotransposons that contain LTR’s and those that do not
Describe the role that mobile DNA elements may have played in evolution
What is exon shuffling and what is the role of mobile DNA elements in this process
Use the University of Florida Health Science Center e-journals or any other applicable online resource to locate the following journal article: Lengthening the Second Stalk of F1F0 ATP Synthase in Escherichia coli. Paul L. Sorgen, Michael R. Bubb, and Brian D. Cain. J Biol Chem, Vol. 274, Issue 51, 36261-36266, December 17, 1999
Use this paper to answer the following questions.
- Previously the authors used site directed mutagenesis to determine the effects of deletions in the Bsubunits of F1F0 ATP synthase on enzyme activity and function. What was the purpose of this study?
- Name the site-directed mutagenic approaches used in this study
- In this and the previous study, to what do the authors attribute the reduced levels of biological activity in their altered enzymes?
- Locate an article in the UF e-journals that discusses RNA tumor viruses (retroviruses) and how they can be used as vectors for gene therapy. Briefly discuss the findings of the article. [10]