Techniques for Visualizing Nucleic Acid Structure and Interactions

A collection of vocabulary flashcards focused on key techniques for visualizing nucleic acid structures and studying interactions revealed from the lecture.

Electron Microscopy (EM)

A technique used to visualize the physical structure of RNA/DNA hybrids and gene transcripts.

RNA-DNA duplexes

Hybrid structures formed when mRNA is mixed with complementary DNA fragments.

Introns

Sequences present in genomic DNA that are removed from the final mRNA transcript.

dsRNA

Double-stranded RNA that triggers RNA interference (RNAi) in biological systems.

RNA Interference (RNAi)

A biological process where dsRNA causes sequence-specific mRNA degradation.

DNA Footprinting

A technique to identify the exact DNA sequence a specific protein binds to in vitro.

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP)

A method used to find DNA sequences associated with a specific protein in living cells.

DNA Affinity Chromatography

A technique used to isolate proteins that bind to a known DNA sequence.

Yeast Two Hybrid Approach

A method for identifying novel protein-protein interactions within yeast cells.

Chimeric fusion proteins

Proteins created by fusing two different proteins to study their interactions.

Compensatory Mutation Analysis

A genetic experiment to prove base pairing interactions are essential for function.

Nonsense Mutation

A mutation that results in a premature stop codon, potentially disrupting protein synthesis.

Frameshift Mutation

A genetic mutation caused by insertion or deletion of a nucleotide, altering the reading frame.

Puromycin

An antibiotic that mimics aminoacyl-tRNA and interferes with translation termination.

Alternative Splicing

A process that allows a single gene to produce multiple protein variants through different splicing.

Sex-lethal (sxl) gene

A gene involved in determining sex in Drosophila through splicing regulation.

RNAi Pathway: Dicer

A ribonuclease enzyme that processes double-stranded RNA into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in the RNA interference pathway.

RNAi Pathway: RISC Complex

A multi-protein complex that incorporates small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) or microRNAs (miRNAs) and mediates gene silencing by targeting complementary messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for degradation or translational repression.

RNAi Pathway: Argonaute (Ago) Protein

A key protein component of the RISC complex that binds to small RNAs and facilitates the regulation of gene expression by targeting complementary mRNAs for silencing.