Molecular Basis

of Inheritance

structure of DNA
search for genetic material
Replication
Transcription
Translation
Lac operon
nap
DNA fingerprinting
2-3 Q Is
Structure of DNA tRNA
• A nucleotide has
3
components :

I .

Nitrogen base

Purine : Adenine ,
Guanine
Pyrimidine :
cytosine , Thymine
Uracil ( in RNA
instead of Thymine)
2 .

Sugar
Ribose n
RNA

Deoxyribose n
DNA

3 .
Phosphate Group

base linked to
Nitrogen
pentose sugar by N -

Glycosidic linkage .

Nucleoside
Nitrogen base +
Sugar
-
-

Nucleoside +
phosphate = Nucleotide
Group

• Two nucleotides linked

through
' '

phosphodiester
3 5 -

bond to
form
dinucleotide .
•
Poly nucleotideribose
'
has free phosphate group at
end of
free
'
and 3 on
5
sugar group
at other end .

RNA reactive
• is
highly than DNA .

Double helin structure DNA Watson I Crick

of by .

Backbone made up of and phosphate

•
sugar
base inside
and
projects .

• Both
fuelynucleotide chains are antiparallel
has
polarity and other
' '

if one chain 3 -
S

has
' '
5 -
3 .

• Two strands of chains held together by H bonds

-

A- = T
; GE C

right
'

Both chains are coiled in handed

•
fashion
Pitch helix 3. Unm with 20 base hairs in
of
=

each turn .

helin
Packaging in DNA

No base hairs in E coli 6×106

of U
=
•
. .
.

• DNA
packaging in
Prokaryotes : -

DNA freely
charged) held
by proteins (truly charged) in
termed DNA
a
region as NUCLLEOID . The in
held
nucleoside is
organised in
large loops
by proteins .
 :
• DNA
packaging in
Eukaryotes There
histones
is a

set of +
rely charged proteins called

8 histone
proteins come to
form Histone Octamer .

around
rely charged DNA to wrapped NUCLEOSOMErely charged +
-
•

histone octameter
form .

• Histone ng : situated outside nucbeosomal DNA

in linker
Region

Nucleosome
Repeating unit
of chromatin
-
• .

Beads
• on
string structure chromatin is
in
chromatin fibres that
packaged to
form
are
further coiled to
form chromosomes .

• The
packaging of chromatin at
higher level
chromosomal
req .

additional set of Non histone

-

proteins ( Nnc)
• At places : chromatin is
densely packed to

form darkly stained HETEROCHROMATIN .

loosely packed chromatin EUCHROMATIN

°

• Euchromatin is
heterochromatin
transcriptionally
inactive .
active while

Search for Genetic Material

Transforming Principle Frederick Griffith

•
Performed empt . with Streptococcus pneumoniae
and mice .

He concluded that presence

of heat killed
-
•

bacteria caused
S strain
-

transformation of
some R strain bacteria into virulent
-

• Biochemical nature of genetic material not defined .

chemical nature

Macleod E worked determine

•

chemical
McCarty
nature '
to
"

of transforming principle
Proteases
• Proteins
Transformation happens
RNASE
RNA
Transformation happens
DNase
DNA no transformation

• DNA is
Transforming Principle .

Hershey I chase Enpt .

• Enht performed on

bacteriophages
•
proves DNA is
material
genetic .

•
Unequal proof to
that DNA is
say
material
genetic .
DNA Replication
DNA
Ori
strands
separating from
( origin of replication) The .

unwinding catalysed by many

Y shaped structure
enzymes
-
.

site called
formed at ori

Replication fork .

DNA polymerase attaches to

replication fork I add
nucleotides complementary to
parental Direction
DNA .
of
polymerisation
' '
5 -

3 .

DNA
polymerisation cannot initiate
small
polymerisation
itself ,so a
segment of RNA called
primer attached at startreplication point .

adds nucleotides
DNA
polymerase on one
of
template strand (leading Strand) -
continuous
Replication

onother strand :
Replication is Discontinuous -

Okazaki
small
fragment of DNA fragments
-

which are later joined by DNA

ligase ( lagging
.

strand)
Transcription
In Prokaryotes
completed in 3 steps :

I .
Initiation

RNA
holymerase binds
with initiation
factor
( and then
o
factor)
binds to
promoter .

2 .

Elongation
RNA
polymerase seherates
from factor I adds
a

nucleoside triphosphate
as substrate .

3 . Termination

on
reaching terminator
RNA
region polymerase
-

binds with P
factor
.

As a result , nascent RNA separates .

 In Eukaryotes
3
types of RNA

polymerase found .

RNA holymerase I
transcribes tRNA

RNA
polymerase II
transcribes herRNA
(precursor of mRNA )

RNA polymerase III

transcribes Ss rRNA ,
tRNA snRNA
,

•
Primary transcription has both enons I introns .

• Introns removed
by process SPLICING .

her RNA
undergoes 2 additional process : -

s .

Capping to
:
'
methyl
end
guanosine
her RNA
triphosphate
added 5 -

of .

Adenylate residues (200-300) added

:
2 .

Tailing
'
to 3 -
end .

Genetic code
• Cordon is triplet
amino acids ;
• 61 codons code for 3 are
stop
 • 2 cordon codes for
2 amino acid
only .

( unambiguous
specific )

• Some amino acids

coded than
by more
I codon .

(Degenerate)

• No punctuations
universal
Nearly
•

tRNA : soluble RNA

-
clover leaf model
-

inverted L -

-
Anticodon loop has
bases complementary
to code .

Translation
Process of polymerisation amino acids to
•
of
form a
polypeptide .

1st :
charging of tRNA / Amino
acylation of sRNA
Initiation

Elongation
Termination
( by stop codons UAA UAG UGA)
:
LAC -
OPERON
Jacob A Mond
•

by
consists
•
of regulatory
gene ( gene) and
i
structural
genes
(2 y , , a)

• i
gene
: codes
for
repressor .

• -
ve
operon .
 Human Genome Project
•
Identify all 20k
genes
in human DNA .

2 methods

E- STs

Expressed sequence
Annotation
sequence
Tags ( se)

identifying
all simply
genes
of RNA sequencing
whole set
.

• 13
year project :
completed in 2003 .

last to complete
chromosome
may 2006)
• 2 -

DNA fingerprinting
-
-
-

• Involves
identifying difference in some

specific regions of DNA -

Repetitive sequence
.
Polymorphism ( variations at
genetic level) arise
due to mutations
Previous Yrs Tmm .