This is an interactive review sheet that encourages you to interact with the material and draw out the critical information.  There are several ways to contribute:

 

• Add an important vocabulary word and its definition to the list from a specific lecture.  These are anything you feel is essential to the understanding of the material including the names and functions of proteins, types of chemical bonds, names of processes, etc.

• Add an answer to one of the concept questions

• Edit and expand on another student's posting

• Add a link to another website, a video on You Tube, or any other teaching material on the web that you think enhances your understanding of the material.

 

As I stated in class, 8 points of your exam grade is dependent on your participation in this dialog about the material.  I will use the following rubric for grading: 3 points for adding and defining one vocabulary word, 3 points for participating in the answering of one of the concept questions, 2 points for editing and expanding on another student's posting (edits must be more than just removing a word or adding a word, it must have an impact on the material discussed)

 

Contributions to this review must be completed by 5 p.m. on April 21st (the Tuesday before the exam)

 

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Topic 14 Eukaryotic Transcription

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concepts:

 

What are the different roles of Pol I, II, and III?

What are General Transcription Factors?

What is the function of TFIID?

What are the many roles of Polymerase II C-terminal domain phosphorlyation?

What is unique about transcription in Eukaryotes?

 

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Topic 15 Eukaryotic Transcriptional Regulation I

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concepts:

 

How do activators function in Eukaryotes?  Are there differences when compared to Prokaryotic activators?

How do we know that DNA binding and activation are separable components of Activators?

What problems do nucleosomes cause for transcription?

How do histone tail modifications, particularly acetylation, change chromatin structure?

What are the functions of Histone Acetylases and Deacetylases?

How do Repressors work?

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Topic 16 Eukaryotic Transcriptional Regulation II

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concepts:

 

What is the difference between Euchromatin and Heterochromatin?

Euchromatin areas are places in DNA where genes are being actively transcribed.  They are less dense areas of chromatin because the histone tails have had acetyl groups added onto them. 

     Heterochromatin is characterized by a complete repression of transcription.  These densely packed areas of chromatin are usually found around centromeres, telomeres, and silent genes. 

What kind of Modifications of Histones and DNA are associated with active vs. silent chromatin?

What is imprinting and how does it work?

How does methylation ensure the inheritance of gene activation states?

Why would you want to reprogram the chromatin organization of a cell?

 

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Topic 17 RNA Structure, Ribozymes, and Regulatory RNA

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concepts:

What makes RNA different than DNA?

RNA is different than DNA in several ways. The main primary difference is that RNA is single stranded in nature while DNA is double stranded. The nitrogenous base Uracil is commonly found in RNA (instead of Thymine). RNA utilizes a ribose ring sugar featuring a 2' OH group (which enables many of the chemical reactions RNA undergoes). In contrast, DNA utilizes a deoxyribose sugar. Also, RNA features 5' --> 3' polarity.

 

What the unique folding properties of single stranded RNA?

What is mechanism by which RNA undergoes alkali hydrolysis?

What are Ribozymes and how do they work?

What is the difference between miRNA and siRNA?

Where are miRNAs coded for?

Why are miRNAs generally about 20-21 nucleotides long?

Why can the RNases Drosha and Dicer process all miRNAs?

How does RISC function?

 

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Topic 18 RNA Splicing

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concepts:

What is splicing?

What sequences are required for the splicing of introns?

What is the function of U1 and U2 snRNPs?  How is base pairing important for their function?

How are self-splicing introns related to the spliceosome?

What is alternative splicing?

How do Splicing repressors and Activators work?

How can Northern blots, RT-PCR, and In Situ Hybridization be used to learn about a particular gene’s mRNA and expression pattern?

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Topic 19 Translation

 

Important Vocabulary:

 

 

Important Concept

How are Eukaryotic and Bacterial coding RNAs similar? How are they different?

How are these reflected in their mechanisms of initiation?

Why are tRNAs and the charging of tRNAs so important?

How does RNA facilitate the formation of a peptide bond?

How do protein release factors “act” like tRNAs