BIOL 2905 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Alternative Splicing, Fetus, Open Reading Frame
Get access
Related Documents
Related Questions
Its one problem with 7 questions
A) Most eukaryotic cells transcribe a relatively high portion of their genome, but most of those RNA transcripts are likely not encoding for proteins. Elucidating the function(s) of that "junk" RNA is one of the next big challenges in molecular cell biology. You isolate one of those transcripts and determine that its sequence consists of 50% C, 30% U, and 20% A. What is the percentage of Gs in this transcript? (don't write the unit)
B) Which stop codon(s) can be encoded by the RNA in the previous question ("How many times do we need to tell you to stop? 1").
List the codon(s) alphabetically. If you need to enter fewer codons than the alloted number of "blanks", enter N/A .
C) From what you can tell, the sequence of the transcript you isolated in the previous question* appears quite random. Assuming that it is random, you can expect to see the various combinations of any three nucleotides at a probability that depends of the frequency of each of the nucleotides. For example, you naturally should expect to see the triplet CCC more times than AAA. What is the expected percentage of triplets corresponding to stop codon(s) in this transcript (round to one decimal place and enter just the number without "%")? *(How many times do we need to tell you to stop? 1)
D) If the length of the transcript in the previous two questions is 2,500 nucleotides, how many stop codons do you expect to find in it, based on the frequency you calculated above?
E) On average, how many bases separate each of the occurrence of the stop codon(s) (round to the nearest integer).
F) The sequence between two potential stop codons is an "open reading frame" (ORF*). Upon closer examination of the RNA sequence from the previous questions** you determine the presence of an ORF that may encode for a putative protein which is 600 amino acid residues-long. How long is the ORF?
*Open reading frame: a stretch of DNA or RNA which is uninterrupted by a stop codon and may therefore encode for a protein.
**Questions "How many times do we need to tell you to stop" 1 through 5.
27 bases | ||
1,800 bases | ||
2,500 bases | ||
259 bases | ||
600 bases | ||
83 bases | ||
200 bases |
G) What may be the ramifications of your analyses of the RNA you isolated*? It is clearly containing an ORF which is longer than what you expected to find based on the sequence analysis you have conducted. What would be a logical conclusions based on the comparison of the lengths of the actual and predicted ORFs? Questions "How many times do we need to tell you to stop" 1 through 6. Pick 1, 2 or 3 below
1) The difference between the actual and predicted sizes of the ORF is not big enough to be significant and therefore your initial hypothesis that sequence is random is clearly random, is supported. | ||
2) Nature is random and your results, using the Bard's words, may be "full of sound and fury" but are really "signifying nothing". | ||
3) The difference between the actual and predicted sizes of the ORF is rather big and may suggest that the sequence of the RNA may not be as random as it first appeared. This raises the hypothesis that what started as piece of "junk" RNA may be actually encoding for a protein. |
Fill in the blank. Elongation during translation does NOT involve ____________.
Question 16 options:
the translation of codons according to the genetic code | |
the formation of bonds catalyzed by the ribosome | |
complementary base pairing between RNA molecules | |
amino acids being linked together in a polypeptide | |
reading the DNA template 3' to 5' |
For a given gene, what establishes the reading frame for translation?
Question 17 options:
the location of the enhancer relative to the gene | |
the first three nucleotides at the 5' end of the mRNA | |
the first three nucleotides at the 3' end of the mRNA | |
the start codon in the mRNA | |
the location of the promoter relative to the gene |
Which of the following is the LEAST likely direct consequence of a substitution mutation?
Question 18 options:
changing the length of a protein coded for by a gene | |
changing one amino acid in a protein | |
creating a stop codon | |
eliminating a start codon | |
changing the length of the DNA molecule containing a gene |
Suppose that the pre-mRNA transcript from a eukaryotic gene is 30,000 nucleotides long, and the gene codes for a sequence of 300 amino acids. What is the best explanation for the relationship between these numbers?
Question 19 options:
only the first 900 nucleotides of the pre-mRNA transcript are translated | |
it takes 100 nucleotides to specify a single amino acid | |
300 of the nucleotides in the transcript are important, and the rest are "junk" | |
only the last 900 nucleotides of the pre-mRNA transcript are translated | |
large portions of pre-mRNA transcripts are cut out during RNA processing |
Suppose an individual is born into a population with a novel mutation. Is the new mutation an evolutionary change, and why?
Question 20 options:
no, because it is not a big enough change to count | |
yes, because new mutations are always adaptive | |
yes, because the appearance of a new genetic variant is a genetic change in a population | |
no, because not enough individuals have the mutation for it to matter | |
no, because most mutations are not adaptive |