The final is comprehensive.
~15% of the final will cover material from earlier in
the semester
·
I will assume throughout
the exam that you have consolidated the prior material (including things from
last semester).
·
Specific questions about
earlier material from this semester will be relatively short and not require
memorization of arbitrary details.
The remainder will cover material not yet tested.
Everything in the textbook covered during this semester is fair game.
Everything in my notes should be considered important.
Here are the essentials to know (items in bold are the
most central):
Chapter 25: DNA metabolism
Semi-conservative
replication (including experiments to
test it)
Origins
of replications & replication forks
Enzymology
of DNA polymerases (DNA pol I & pol III)
Continuous
& discontinuous synthesis, Okazaki fragments
The
process of replication and roles of all the players:
subunits
of DNA polymerase
exonuclease
activities
sliding
clamp
primase
& loading complex
helicase
& topoisomerase
SSBs
Polymerase
I (RNAse H in eukaryotes)
ligase
Initiation
of replication
Repair
of DNA
mismatch
repair
base
excision
nucleotide
excision
DNA
recombination
Holliday
structures: how they are made &
resolved
Rec
system
Chapter 26: RNA metabolism
Types
of RNA (mRNA, rRNA, tRNA)
transcription
prokaryotic
stages
pol
II (eukaryotic)
factors
involved
Post-transcriptional
processing
5' cap
poly-A
addition
splicing
group 1
& 2 introns & their relation to spliceosome
pol II transcripts
(spliceosome)
Elements
of a gene (enhancers, promoter, start site, splice sites, etc)
Catalysis
by RNA (ribozymes)
Chapter 27: Translation & beyond
Genetic
code
How it
was deciphered
How it
makes sense
Exceptions
Translation
The
process in prokaryotes &
eukaryotes
tRNA
structure & function
Amino
acyl-tRNA synthetases
Initiation,
elongation, termination & role of the factors
Proofreading
Post-translational
processes
Post-translational
modifications
Translocation
across bacterial membrane & ER membrane
Movement
within the endosecretory system
Import
into mitochondria & nuclei
Chapter 28: Regulation of gene expression
General
principles
transcriptional,
activators, repressors, operon model, etc.
Examples
The lac operon (lac repressor & catabolite repression)
The trp operon (attenuation)
The GAL system in yeast
DNA-binding
proteins
General
mode of action
Helix-turn-helix
DNA-binding
proteins in eukaryotes
Modular
structure (DNA-binding, protein interaction, transactivation)
Homeodomain
(helix-turn-helix)
Zinc
finger
Leu
zipper
Transcriptional
activation
Enhancers
Transactivators
Coactivators
The following were of sufficient quality and interest
to justify taking a question from them:
Proteorhodopsins (J. Mosher)
Riboswitches (Y. Chen)
Cytochrome
P450 (S. McElwee)
RNAi (B. Bullock)