Biology 234-951

Tutorial 1
Tutorial 1– Review of Genes, Genomes and Gene Structure

Notes about tutorials:

1. These tutorials cover the material that was taught last lecture day in class. There may be
some slight mismatches occasionally where the lecture does not cover some material in the
tutorial until the beginning of the next lecture. The tutorial may also have a few questions that
relate to older material.

2. Tutorial problem sets are broken into two components: Part 1 and Part 2. Both parts will be
posted on Canvas prior to your tutorial for you to attempt beforehand. In the tutorial you will
have opportunities to work on and discuss all of the problems. The tutorial questions are
designed to give you practice at a level similar to what you will need to master for tests and
the exam. You might not be able to complete all of the questions in tutorial! Your TA can
help you decide which problems to focus on and will facilitate discussions around the most
challenging ones after you have had some time to work on them. We often give you more
problems than you can finish in tutorial so you can use the rest for practice as you study for
exams. Answer keys to all problems will be posted on Canvas at the end of each week.

Nobody (that we know of) does science in isolation. Scientists work and problem solve in groups
and teams. Whether or not you plan to become a scientist or a geneticist, in order to be successful
in genetics you need to behave like a scientist. Work with your peers in groups to share ideas,
helps each other troubleshoot difficulties. Don’t be afraid to say “I am stuck”, and if you know
how to do something, teach your peers. Your TAs are not there to give you the answers. Rather,
they are there to facilitate you discovering the answer for yourself. You will find that TAs use a lot
of questioning to help you get to the answer on your own. This is called a Socratic teaching
method (the use of questions to guide student learning and discovery). Through group work and
the facilitation offered by your TA you will come to know the correct answers which we will post
at the end of each week. It is very worthwhile to use the time in tutorial to work on the problems
in your groups and get feedback from your TA. We recommend you do any unfinished problems
as extra practice and utilize office hours and the Canvas/Piazza discussion board for additional
help if necessary.
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Tutorial 1
PART 1: Attempt before tutorial

Try to complete the problems listed below. Refer to the material covered last week, as well
genetics material you have learned in other courses, to aid in solving the problems.

Relevant Learning Goals

1. Describe the relationships between DNA, a gene, genome, genotype, cell, and mature
multicellular organism.
2. Recognize and illustrate the following features of eukaryotic genes: promoter,
transcriptional regulatory region(s), transcription start site, terminator, start codon, stop
codon, intron, exon, UTRs. Describe the function of each of these features.
3. Predict the effects on RNA transcript, protein composition, and protein activity of different
mutations (a single base pair substitution; a deletion; an insertion; inversion; translocation of
a specified size) in any given region of a gene of known function. Note: this outcome relates
to lecture material covered after the first Friday but for the Week 2 tutorial questions
relating to this outcome, you will find you should be able to answer the questions by
drawing on knowledge from previous courses.

Part 1 Questions – complete before coming to tutorial

1. From IGA 12th Edition, Chapter 1 Question #5

2. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is diploid with 10 chromosomes (2n=10).
How many chromosomes would you find in an Arabidopsis sperm cell?

3. From IGA 12th Edition, Chapter 1 Q#7 (regarding Figure 1-13b)

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4. When a suspect at a crime scene leaves a few hairs behind, if there are any follicle cells
attached to the hair, forensics labs are able to perform PCR reactions and input the results into
CODIS to see if the genotype of the individual belonging to the hair cells matches the genotype
of any individuals with DNA samples on record.
a) Why can the genotype obtained from hair cells be compared to the genotype of
individuals who had blood samples taken? And why can they also be compared to the
genotype of individuals who had cheek swabs taken (to obtain DNA from cheek
epithelial cells)?

b) The sequence of the alleles for blue versus brown eye colour are known. Why would it
be possible to take a cheek swab (DNA from cheek epithelial cells) and determine what
alleles a person has for eye colour?

5. Consider the following segment of DNA:

5′ GCTTCCCAA 3′
3′ CGAAGGGTT 5′

Assume that the top strand is the template strand.

a. Draw the RNA transcribed.

b. Label its 5′ and 3′ ends.

c. Draw the corresponding amino acid chain assuming the 5’ end represents the first base of a
codon.

d. Label its amino and carboxyl ends.

e. Repeat parts a through d, assuming the bottom strand is the template strand.
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6. Imagine the DNA sequence shown above in Qu. 5 is part of a much longer chromosome in a
diploid organism in G1 of the cell cycle.

5′ GCTTCCCAA 3′
3′ CGAAGGGTT 5′
a. Assuming the organism has an identical copy of this sequence on its homologous
chromosome, how many copies of this sequence would exist in G2 of the cell cycle? To answer
this, draw the 2 homologous chromosomes with their DNA strands and centromeres in G1 and
then in G2. To differentiate between old strands and new strands, draw the old strands as
straight lines as already shown and draw the new strands as squiggly lines

b. A mistake occurred during DNA replication of another part of the same chromosome:

As in part a. the straight line represents the old strand and the squiggly line represents the new
strand in one of the chromatids of the replicated chromosome. What SHOULD the sequence in
this region be? In other words which nucleotide (A or G) is correct? How do you know which
one is correct without even checking the sequence at the same spot on the homologous
chromosome?
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7. Given the following structure of a gene that encodes a protein, clearly indicate the segments of
gene sequence that will appear in the mRNA.

UTR UTR
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PART 2:

8. You have just started working in a genomics lab and are given one cell from an unknown
organism. This cell has 36 chromosomes but you do not know its ploidy.
a) What are all the possible ploidy levels for this cell, eg 1n = 36 (haploid), 2 n= 36
(diploid) and what else are possible?

b) How could you determine the ploidy level of the cell cytologically if you were able to
manipulate the cell to put it into whatever phase of the cell cycle you wanted? What
stage would you put the cell into? Then what would you do to determine ploidy? (Fig 2-
20 might help or look for karyotypes in Google images and if you need to review the
cell cycle refer to Fig 2-6 on pg 40)

9. The gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor) is tetraploid 4 n= 48.

a) How many unique chromosomes make up its genome?

b) Tadpoles of this species have tails that turn red if they sense predators are near. This
phenomenon is under genetic control with an enzyme responsible for the colour change
from gray to red. How many copies of this gene would typically be found in a tadpole
tail cell?

c) Which cells of the frog would have the gene for making this enzyme? For example, could
you take a tissue sample from the leg of an adult frog to isolate this gene?

d) In which cells would you likely find the mRNA for this gene? Where would you likely
find the protein?