what are changes in gene function that do NOT involve changes in DNA sequence?
What does acetylation of lysine residues generally do?
Generally ENHANCES transcription
(neutralizes positive charge, loosening inter-nucleosome interactions therefore loosening compaction and allowing it to be more available)
What does methylation of Lysine and Arginine residues generally do?
H3K9ac
a mark of activation
H3K4me3
a mark of activation
H3K9me3
a mark of repression
What are the groups involved in reversible modification of N-terminal histone tails?
What do HATS do?
Histone acetyltransferases
- transfer acetyl groups to histones
- loosens it up and makes it more accessible to other proteins
- associated w/ euchromatin (active)
What are HDACs and what do they do?
Histone deacetylases
- remove acetyls from tails
- closes off transcription
What are HMTs and what do they do?
Histone methyltransferases
What are KDMs and what do they do?
Jumonji family
- removes methylation of histone tails (histone demethylases)
What are cis vs trans histone modifications?
cis: modifications that directly impact the chromatin structure
e.g. lysine acetylation (adding acetyl group to lysine weakens the group and can open up the closed part of the genome)
trans: recruits other proteins that enact chromatin change
What are bromodomains?
Protein motifs that recognize and bind acetylated lysines
- it acetylates nearby histones, propagating the open state thus INCREASE in gene expression
What are chromodomains?
Proteins motifs that bind methylated lysines
- can stabilize either open or closed state (can promote either activation or repression)
- H3K9Me3 is associated with REPRESSION
What is phosphorylation in respect to histones?
A histone modification
- adds a negative charge to the histone tail
- serine, threonine and tyrosine can be phosphorylated
Can multiple mods happen to one histone?
Yes, and they ultimately result in activation/repression of gene activity
What are chaperones?
Acidic proteins that are needed for nucleosome assembly
(need a neg charge to neutralize the positive charge of histones so that they can bind)
Difference between dNTP, rNTP, ddNTP, etc
Provide some differences in transcription vs translation
Which ones are complementary, and which ones are similar?
Coding
Template
RNA
coding (nontemplate) DNA is complementary to the template DNA
coding DNA is similar to RNA except that RNA has U instead of T
What is the bacterial RNA polymerase made up of?
RNA holoenzyme is made up of 5 subunit core enzyme + a sigma factor co-enzyme subunit
What does the sigma factor co-enzyme subunit do?
Gives selectivity to bind particular regions of the genome and not others
What happens when we incorporate the incorrect nucleotide in regards of RNA Pol?
RNA Pol slows down or “stalls”
If it doesn’t, we get this fraying end that causes RNA pol to backtrack (peels inappropriate RNA off the DNA template into rNTP entry channel and the catalytic core has some level of intrinsic nuclease activity “nucleolytic proof reading”)
What is alpha aminitin? What does it do?
blocks active site of eukaryotic RNA pol II
- this inhibits mRNA production
- other RNA pols not affected (doesn’t affect tRNA and rRNA)