BIOL10002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Messenger Rna, Synthetic Biology, Sickle-Cell Disease
Lecture 9
Major Macromolecules
Carbohydrates
- Source of chemical energy
- often branched
- form structural components
- most abundant organic compounds in nature
- have the general formula (CH2O)n (generally n is between 3 and 8)
- basic unit is a saccharide, and can form monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides
how they are joined together determines their properties; e.g. cellulose (α linkages) vs. starch and glycogen (β
linkages) – body doesn’t have enzymes to break down cellulose and will get no glucose from it but starch is digested
easily and can produce a lot of energy.
Nucleic Acids
- DNA (mostly always double helix – joined by hydrogen bonds) and RNA (always linear)
- linear, unbranched chains made up of nitrogenous bases A, C, G, T/U
- either two-ringed (purine) or single-ringed (pyrimidine)
- basic unit is a nucleotide, consisting of a phosphate group, a pentase sugar and a base
- linkage is called a phosphodiester linkage (carbon 5 of a sugar to carbon 3 of the adjacent sugar; 5’ to 3’)
Genetic Language:
- DNA language has four letters and 64 three letter words
- Protein language has 20 letters and infinite number of words of any length
- Translate the 64 DNA words into one letter of a protein word
- Order of amino acids is prescribed by the nucleotide sequence of the gene
- Order of amino acids determines the shape of the protein
- Shape of the protein determines the function
Transcription and Translation
Transcription is the process of reading a gene and creating a messenger RNA that can exit the nucleus and go to a
ribosome in the cytoplasm to be translated into a protein.
Translation is the process of translating the sequence of a messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule to a sequence of amino
acids during protein synthesis. The genetic code describes the relationship between the sequence of base pairs in a
gene and the corresponding amino acid sequence that it encodes.
Human Genome
Many diseases are potentially able to be treated with gene precision
e.g. sickle cell anaemia, cystic fibrosis, asthma puffers
Stem cell research
Can sequence the genes of extinct species
Cloning
Potentially salvaging extinct species
Synthetic biology
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Have the general formula (ch2o)n (generally n is between 3 and 8) Basic unit is a saccharide, and can form monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. Dna (mostly always double helix joined by hydrogen bonds) and rna (always linear) Linear, unbranched chains made up of nitrogenous bases a, c, g, t/u. Basic unit is a nucleotide, consisting of a phosphate group, a pentase sugar and a base. Linkage is called a phosphodiester linkage (carbon 5 of a sugar to carbon 3 of the adjacent sugar; 5" to 3") Dna language has four letters and 64 three letter words. Protein language has 20 letters and infinite number of words of any length. Translate the 64 dna words into one letter of a protein word. Order of amino acids is prescribed by the nucleotide sequence of the gene. Order of amino acids determines the shape of the protein. Shape of the protein determines the function.
