Lexi Grubbs

AP Biology: Chapter 12 – From Gene to Protein p. 215

1. What was Beadle and Tatum’s hypothesis regarding enzymes?

It is the “one gene, one enzyme” hypothesis, which claims that genes act through the

production of enzymes. Each single gene is supposed to produce a single enzyme.

2. How has that hypothesis been modified?

It looks from information transfers from DNA to RNAS now.

3. How is RNA similar to DNA and how is it different?

RNA DNA

Sugars Ribose Deoxyribose

Bases Adenine, Guanine, Uracil, Cytosine Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine

Strands Single-stranded Double-stranded with base pairing

Helix No Yes

4. What are the three major classes of RNA? List each and their purpose.

Messenger RNA Takes a message from DNA in the nucleus to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm

Transfer RNA Transfers amino acids to the ribosomes

Ribosomal RNA Makes up the Ribosomes, where polypeptides are synthesized

5. What occurs during transcription?

An RNA molecule is produced based on a DNA template, which is transcribed in mRNA, tRNA,

and rRNA.

6. What occurs during translation?

 The mRNA transcript is read by a ribosome and converted into the sequence of amino acids in a

polypeptide.

7. What do they mean by the “Central Dogma” of molecular biology?

Processes that dictate the flow of information from the DNA to RNA to protein in a cell.

8. What is the Genetic Code?

It is the universal code that has existed for eons and allows for conversion of DNA and RNA’s

chemical code to a sequence of amino acids in a protein.

9. What are the features of the genetic code? Explain each.

It features a triple code: each codon is made up of three nucleotides, which does not provide

variety to encode 20 different amino acids.

10. Why is the genetic code said to be universal?

It is comprised of a triplet base of uniform nucleotides that can code with any amino acid it is

paired with. All organisms seem to share a common evolutionary heritage.

11. List the highlights of the three stages of transcription.

a. Initiation – translational machinery binds an mRNA and assembles

b. Elongation – additional amino acids specified by the mRNA are added to the growing polypetide

c. Termination – ribosome reaches a stop codon on the mRNA that it is translating, causing release of

the completed protein

12. What happens to the transcript RNA before it leaves the nucleus?

It is processed and receives a cap at the 5’ end and tail at the 3’ end.

13. What is the advantage of the 5’ cap and poly A tail?

The mRNA is now ready to leave the nucleus and be translated into a protein. It utilizes

ribosomes to cut out introns.

14. Distinguish between exons and introns.

 Exons Introns

Segment of mRNA containing the protein-coding Intervening sequence found between exons in

portion of a gene that remains in the gene mRNA; removed by RNA processing before

following splicing translation

15. Describe the mechanism for splicing RNA.

It is either removed by self-splicing in lower eukaryotes or via mRNA splicing in higher

eukaryotes. In the former, it is done pre-mRNA. In the latter, it is dine using snRNA’s.

16. What does alternative RNA processing do for cells?

It increases that flexibility and efficiency.

17. Identify the roles of the players of the translation process.

a. transfer RNA – transfer amino acids to the ribosomes

b. Ribosomes – binding site for mRNA and three binding sites for transfer RNA molecules

18. Identify and briefly describe the steps of translation.

a. Initiation – brings all the translation components together

b. Elongation – stage during protein synthesis when a polypeptide increases in length one amino acid at

a time

c. Termination – final step; polypeptide and the assembled components that carried out protein

synthesis are separated from one another

19. What is the advantage of polyribosomes?

Translation occurs in them, and their amino acids act as a signal peptide that indicates where

the polypeptides belong in the cell r if is to be secreted from the cell.