BIO 100 Exam 2 (Genetics)

codon

A set of three adjacent nucleotides, also called triplet, in mRNA that base-pair with the corresponding aniticodon of tRNA molecule that carries a particular amino acid, hence, specifying the type and sequence of amino acids for protein synthesis

What is the basic pathway of molecular biology?

DNA -> RNA -> Protein DNA is the code RNA translates and delivers the code 3 letters of code make an amino acid: codon Proteins are made from a collection of amino acids

Transgenic Organism

genetic material from another organism is inserted in the host organism

Cisgentic Organism

genetic material from the same species

Knockout Gene

remove genetic material from a target organism (knockout gene)

What organizations regulate GMOs in the US?

the Environmental Projection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Frame-shift mutations

the addition or deletion of one letter (nucleotide) Small scale mutations

heterozygous

2 different alleles Ww

homozygous

2 of the same alleles WW or ww

What are the benefits and drawbacks of genetic testing and what role do genetic councilors play?

Benefits: Help to make recommendations Change health habits: diet & exercise Decision about child birth Eliminate uncertainty Drawbacks Emontional: knowing that you or a family member has a high risk of disease Financial: test can be costly $100-$2,000: insurance may not cover all of it Discrimination: Genetics Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 Insurance and employers can not discriminate Limitation of testing: we don't know what all the genes/mutations do Genetic Councilor: works as part of a health care team to understand the: Scientific information Ethical issues Emotional factors To tested or not? That is the question

What is the difference between benign and malignant tumors?

Benign tumors aren't cancerous. They can often be removed, and, in most cases, they do not come back. Cells in benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body. Malignant tumors are cancerous and are made up of cells that grow out of control. Cells in these tumours can invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body. Sometimes cells move away from the original (primary) cancer site and spread to other organs and bones where they can continue to grow and form another tumour at that site. This is known as metastasis or secondary cancer. Metastases keep the name of the original cancer location. e.g. pancreatic cancer that has spread to the liver is still called pancreatic cancer.

What are current bioethical concerns?

Biotech Clinical/Medical End of Life Euthanasia/Suicude Genetic Ethics Human Enhancements Mental Health Organ Transplantation Reproductive Research Ethics Stem Cell Research

Is sickle cell a good or bad mutation?

Blood can't carry as much oxygen (Bad)) Malaria can grow in affected cells (Good)

What are the most common types of cancer?

Breats Colon Lung Prostate

Bt Crops

Bt corn, cotton, potatoes Bt gene from bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis Plants produce insecticidal Bt protein B. thuringiensis is a soil bacterium that has been used since the 1920's as insect control Bt proteins break down readily in human digestion

What are characteristics of a cancer cell?

Cancer cells divide repeatedly when they are not needed, overcrowd other cells, and function abnormally

What are treatments for cancer?

Chemotherapy Radiation Therapy

Identify which disorders are chromosomal disorders?

Chromosomal abnormalities can affect any chromosome, including the sex chromosomes. Chromosomal abnormalities affect the number or structure of chromosomes and may be visible with a microscope in a test called karyotype analysis. Examples of sex-linked disorders caused by a single gene defect on the X chromosome include: Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive degeneration of muscle tissue Hemophilia, which is a deficiency in one of several blood-clotting factors and causes uncontrollable bleeding

4 subdivisions of Genetics (examples of each)

Classical: Describes how traits (Physical characteristics) are passed from one generation to another (ex. pedigree a study of ancestry) Molecular: The study of chemical and physical structures of DNA, RNA, and proteins (e.g. investigation of how genetic code works on levels of DNA and RNA) Population: takes Mendelian genetics (genetics of individual families) and ramps it up to look at genetic makeup of larger groups (e.g. whte and brown rabbits, BB,Bb,bb) Quantitative: examines the statistical relationships between genes and the traits they encode (e.g. how much is environmental and how much is genetic)

What are the types and examples of different kinds of mutagens?

Endogenous mutagen: internal cause Example: Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Also know as Free Radicals Can cause break in DNA Thought to be a big factor in aging of cells -> ourselves Exogenous Mutagens: external cause Examples: Intercalators: chemical that mimics DNA and alters its structure Carcinogens a substance that can cause caner Carcinogens can be mutagens but not always Tabacco, Asbestos, UV radiation

Why genetically modify rice to be flood tolerant? What are the main GE crops in the US and how are they modified?

Enough rice to feed 30 million people is lost every year to floods. Soybeans 17% in 1997 to 94 % in 2014-15 Cotton: 10% in 1997 to 91 % in 2014, 89% in 2015 Corn : 89% in 2015 They are modified to be insect, weed, and weather resistent.

Epigenetics

Epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene expression that does not involve changes to the DNA sequence Epigenetics means "above genetics"

Flavr Savr

Flavr Savr tomato was the first commercially available genetically engineered food in 1992 Many tomatoes are picked before they are ripe and then "artificially" ripened off the vine Flavr Savr can ripen on the vine but its has been engineered to ripen slowly

What is the difference between Heredity and Acquired Mutation?

Heredity Mutations: passed on from parent to offspring Offspring have mutation for entire life Acquired Mutations: developed during a person's life and only affects certain cells

Be able to identify the inheritance pattern of autosomal dominant/recessive disorders and sex linked disorders.

In an autosomal dominant disease, if you inherit the abnormal gene from only one parent, you can get the disease. A parent with an autosomal dominant condition has a 50% chance of having a child with the condition. This is true for each pregnancy. Autosomal recessive: A genetic condition that appears only in individuals who have received two copies of an autosomal gene, one copy from each parent. The gene is on an autosome, a nonsex chromosome. The parents are carriers who have only one copy of the gene and do not exhibit the trait because the gene is recessive to its normal counterpart gene. If both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance of a child inheriting both abnormal genes and, consequently, developing the disease. There is a 50% chance of a child inheriting only one abnormal gene and of being a carrier, like the parents, and there is a 25% chance of the child inheriting both normal genes. Sex Linked Recessive: in recessive inheritance, both matching genes must be abnormal to cause disease. If only one gene in the pair is abnormal, the disease does not occur or it is mild. Someone who has one abnormal gene (but no symptoms) is called a carrier. Carriers can pass abnormal genes to their children. The term "sex-linked recessive" usually refers to X-linked recessive. Sex-Linked Dominant: Dominant inheritance occurs when an abnormal gene from one parent can cause a disease, even though a matching gene from the other parent is normal. The abnormal gene dominates the gene pair. For an X-linked dominant disorder: If the father carries the abnormal X gene, all of his daughters will inherit the disease and none of his sons will have the disease. That is because daughters always inherit their father's X chromosome. If the mother carries the abnormal X gene, half of all their children (daughters and sons) will inherit the disease tendency.

What are some current medical and industrial uses of GE?

Medical: Mass produce Insulin, human growth factor, antibodies, vaccines and other drugs Research Animal Models of human disease Mice & Pigs Edible Vaccines Plant produced and plant delivered Gene Therapy Replacing defective genes with effective ones Industrial: Creating organism to express the desired protein Goat Milk Spider Silk E-Coli used to make propane Bacterial to clean up Microorganism that sequester carbon

Recombinant DNA

Molecules of DNA brought together from different sources

What are the benefits and concerns with GMOs?

More crops survive Lot of power placed in hands of very large companies Monta Santo (Roundup)

How is synthetic biology different than Genetic engineering?

SB=Designing and constructing new biological part/genes that do not exist in the natural world Using computer modeling to create new genetic sequences Engineering biological systems GE=Set of technologies used to change the genetic make up of cells Manually adding DNA to an organism Can include the transfer of genes from within and across species boundaries

sex-linked trait

Sex Chromosomes: 1 pair XX female (2 full length) XY male (1 full length & one short) Sex-Linked Traits

What is the difference between a small scale mutation and a large scale mutation?

Small scale mutations affect the DNA at the nucleotide level Small scale mutations can be classified by either their effect on DNA or on Proteins Large Scale mutations affect DNA at chromosome level

Bioethics

The study of the ethical and moral implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical advances -Genetic engineering -Drug research

How has the study of epigenetics changed our knowledge about how genes work?

We now know that what our parents and grandparents do as their genes are developing can effect our genes

Punnett squares and inheritance patterns for single traits

a diagram that is used to predict an outcome of a particular cross or breeding The diagram is used by biologists to determine the probability of an offspring having a particular genotype.

mutations

a permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements

Gene

a unit of heredity transferred from parents to offspring and/or Gene: a distinct sequence of nucleic acids forming part of a chromosome

Allele (dominate/recessive)

alternate forms or varieties of a gene, an allele from each parent D:an allele that produces the same phenotype whether its paired allele is identical or different R:an allele that produces its characteristic phenotype only when its paired allele is identical

non-sense mutations

alters code to make a stop codon

missense mutations

changes from one amino acid to another

Glyphosate

is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe. It was discovered to be a herbicide by Monsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970.[3] Monsanto brought it to market in the 1970s under the trade name Roundup and Monsanto's last commercially relevant United States patent expired in 2000.

genotype

is an individual's collection of genes. The term also can refer to the two alleles inherited for a particular gene. The genotype is expressed when the information encoded in the genes' DNA is used to make protein and RNA molecules

Autosome

non sex chromosomes, 22 pairs in humans

phenotype

physical or detectable trait

polygenic trait

trait from many genes Most traits: Height, Hair color, Eye color

mendelian trait

trait from one gene (e.g Tounge Rolling)