CEE 724 EXAM 2- Pt 1 Cell Components & Genetic Information Flow

What are cells made up of?

70-90% water, molecular building blocks, inorganic ions

What are the four basic microbial macromolecules?

Proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, polysaccharides

Which macromolecules are non informational (do not carry genetic information)

Polysaccharides and lipids

Which macromolecules are informational (carry genetic information)

Nucleic acids and proteins

Where are proteins located in the cell?

Throughout as cell structures, flagella, and enzymes

Where are nucleic acids found in the cell?

Nucleoid region, RNA is found in cytoplasm and ribosomes

Where are polysaccharides found in the cell?

In cell wall and sometimes internal storage granules

Where are lipids found in the cell?

In cytoplasmic membrane, the cell wall, and in storage granules

What is the structure of monomers?

A pentose sugar, phosphate groups, and nitrogen base with 5 different options which differ by the number of rings and how they associate

What is the function of monomers?

Energy currency for the cell, and important metabolic regulators

What is the structure of nucleic acids?

Formed by covalent bonds between sugar and phosphate, energy consuming, bond to sugars through H-bonding

What is the function of nucleic acids?

DNA is the genetic blueprint of the cell, RNA is responsible for carrying genetic messages and converting genetic information into proteins

What is a gene?

A distinct sequence of nucleotides forming part of the chromosome, which determines the monomers in a polypeptide or molecule which a cell may synthesize.

What are the 5 types of genetic elements?

Chromosome, plasmids, viral genomes, organellar genomes, transposable elements

What is a chromosome (nucleoid)

the main genetic element, one circular copy in most prokaryotes

What are plasmids?

Small circular or linear double stranded DNA molecules that replicate separately from the chromosome.

What are the stages of genetic information flow?

Replication, transcription, translation

What are the 3 main classes of RNA participate in protein synthesis?

Messenger RNA, transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA

What does messenger RNA do (mRNA)?

Single stranded molecules that carry information from DNA to the ribosome

What does transfer RNA do (tRNA)?

help convert nucleotide sequences in to amino acids and proteins

What does ribosomal RNA do (rRNA)?

important catalytic and structural features of the ribosome, where protein synthesis takes place

What is the replication stage in genetic information flow?

The DNA double helix is duplicated for cell division. Both strands are templates for new DNA. This process is catalyzed by the enzyme DNA polymerase.

What is the transcription stage in genetic information flow?

The genetic information in DNA is transferred to RNA. Only one strand is the template. This process is

catalyzed by the enzyme RNA polymerase.

What is the translation stage in genetic information flow?

mRNA is the template for polypeptide formation. This occurs in the ribosomes with the assistance of tRNA

What is the 16S ribosomal RNA gene

Most common biomarker used in environmental

engineering microbiology to tell us who is there. Targets all bacteria and archaea.

How is PCR used?

involves a set of temperature conditions and reagents, targets specific genes by using primers specific to the gene region.

What are primers in PCR?

short sequences of nucleotides designed from the genome that provide a starting point for DNA replication

What is the process of gene specific biomarker analysis?

Amplify gene of interest with primer, determine nucleotides on sequencer, if 16S rRNA cluster similar sequences into operational taxonomic units or amplicon sequence variants, compare to a database and further analysis