Reminders:

Project 1, Part 4 due Monday 6/9

Project 2, Part 1 due Monday 6/9

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Figure 1 The rate of transport of molecule X was determined in HeLa and HEK cells over
increasing concentrations of X. The experiment was repeated 5 times for each concentration
tested. The star indicates a significant difference in rate of transport at a p0.001.

1.

What are the independent and dependent variables in this experiment?

a. Independent = Rate of Transport, Dependent = Cell Type (HeLa or HEK)
b. Independent = Cell Type (HeLa or HEK), Dependent = Concentration of X
c. Independent = Concentration of X, Dependent = Rate of Transport
d. Dependent = Rate of Transport, Independent = Cell Type (HeLa or HEK)

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Figure 1 The rate of transport of molecule X was determined in HeLa and HEK cells over
increasing concentrations of X. The experiment was repeated 5 times for each concentration
tested. The star indicates a significant difference in rate of transport at a p0.001.

2. What conclusions can we draw from this data set?

a. We can conclude that the maximal rate of transport of X is higher in HEK cells than in
HeLa cells.
b. We can conclude that rate of transport of X is impaired at higher concentrations of X.
c. We can conclude that at concentrations of X less than 2, HeLa cells transport X at a
significantly higher rate than the HEK cells.
d. We can conclude that while the rate of transport of X is significantly impaired in HeLa
cells at concentrations of 0.5 and 1, the maximal rate appears equal for both cell types.

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Structure of Genetic Material

Goals:
Review the structural characteristics
of nucleotides (DNA/RNA)
Review how that structure can be
taken advantage of to form polymers

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

DNA is composed of a series of smaller molecules called nucleotides.

a) The three
components of a
nucleotide include
the phosphate and
sugar groups and a
nitrogenous base.
a) Phosphate units link
to sugar units,
forming
phosphodiester
bonds that make up
the backbone of a
polynucleotide
molecule.

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Structure of Genetic Material

Figure 3: All polynucleotides contain an alternating

sugar-phosphate backbone. This backbone is
formed when the 3' end (dark gray) of one
nucleotide attaches to the 5' phosphate end (light
gray) of an adjacent nucleotide by way of a
phosphodiester bond.
Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

RNA

DNA

ribose

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Structure of Genetic Material

Nucleotide bases are classified into purines and pyrimidines.

A pyrimidine is a fourcarbon ring connected by
nitrogen atoms at the 1
and 3 positions.
The pyrimidines cytosine
(C) and thymine (T) are
found in DNA, and
cytosine and uracil (U) are
found in RNA.
A purine molecule is a
pyrimidine ring connected
to an imidazole ring; the
overall structure is a
double ring.
Adenine (A) and guanine
(G) are the purines in both
DNA and RNA.

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Structure of Genetic Material

Chargaffs Second Rule:

Guanine can pair only with cytosine,
using three hydrogen bonds, and
adenine can pair only with thymine,
using two hydrogen bonds. These are
the base pairing rules of the DNA
double helix. (Note that thymine is
replaced by uracil in RNA).

The directionality of the sugarphosphate backbone results in one

strand running opposite to the other.

GC
A T (U)

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Structure of Genetic Material

Figure 4: Double-stranded DNA consists of two polynucleotide chains whose

nitrogenous bases are connected by hydrogen bonds. Within this arrangement,
each strand mirrors the other as a result of the anti-parallel orientation of the
sugar-phosphate backbones, as well as the complementary nature of the A-T and
C-G base pairing.
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X-ray Diffraction of DNA

Maurice Wilkins data

Rosalind Franklins data

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Structure of Genetic Material

Watson and Crick DNA Model

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

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Structure of Genetic Material

Watson and Crick DNA Model

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Structure of Genetic Material

DNA and RNA form complex secondary structures.

The DNA double helix features two
polynucleotide strands with sugarphosphate backbones linked by
purine-pyrimidine pairs.

The secondary structure of DNA is a

double helix: two intertwined strands of
DNA.
The double helix structure of DNA is
made up of a phosphate-sugar
backbone with paired nucleotide bases
on the interior of the molecule.
The only pairs of nucleotide bases in
DNA are between purines and
pyrimidines.

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Structure of Genetic Material

If 26% of the bases in a piece of doublestranded DNA is G, what percent of the

bases are T in that same DNA piece?
A. 13%
B. 24%
C. 26%

D. 48%
E. None of the above
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Structure of Genetic Material

How is DNA packaged within cells?

A complete strand of human DNA has about 3 billion base pairs: uncoiled, it
would be about 2m long!

Figure 7: To better fit within the

cell, long pieces of doublestranded DNA are tightly packed
into structures called
chromosomes.

Figure 8: In
eukaryotic
chromatin, doublestranded DNA
(gray) is wrapped
around histone
proteins (red).

Figure 9: Supercoiled
eukaryotic DNA.

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18

How do we know DNA is the heritable

material?

Goals:
Understand the early experiments
that determined DNA carried heritable
information.

Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Photographs of Pneumococcus Strains

R strain

S strain

S
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What is the Heritable Material?

Griffiths Experiments on Bacterial Transformation

Hypothesis: Material in dead cell can transform living cells.

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What is the Heritable Material?

But, what is the heritable material?

Candidates:
Amino Acids (protein)
or
dNTPs (DNA)

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What is the Heritable Material?

AveryMacLeodMcCarty Transformation Experiments (1944)

Treated virulent, heat-killed S strain

with various digestive enzymes
(-ase suffix indicates its an enzyme,
the first part of the name tells you
something about its function)

Added treated S-strain

to living R-strain (nonvirulent) and injected
into mice

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Hershey & Chase Experiment

3 viruses

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What is the Heritable Material?

Hershey & Chase Experiment

infection

Phage
Hereditary
Material

5 minutes

Phage
Hereditary
Material
Biol200 - Concepts in Biology

Remove
phage
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What is the Heritable Material?

Hershey & Chase Experiment

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25

What is the Heritable Material?

Hershey & Chase Experiment

protein

DNA
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What is the Heritable Material?

Hershey & Chase Experiment

protein

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What is the Heritable Material?

Hershey & Chase Experiment

protein

DNA
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What is the Heritable Material?

Refined Phage Experiment

Table 1.2. Location of phage protein and DNA after infection of E. coli.

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What is the Heritable Material?

How do cells copy (replicate) DNA?

DNA replication occurs in three major steps:

1) the opening of the double helix and separation of the DNA strands,
2) the priming of the template strand, and
3) the assembly of the new DNA segment.

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- Initiator protein (not shown) unwinds short stretch of double-stranded DNA

- A protein helicase (yellow) breaks apart the hydrogen bonds between the bases,
separating the strands
- Enzyme primase (red) briefly attaches to each strand and assembles a foundation
(primer) at which replication can begin

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Beginning at the primer sequence, DNA polymerase (blue) attaches

to the original DNA strand and begins assembling a new,
complementary strand.
It uses free-floating nucleotides to build the new strand, matching
each nucleotide in the template strand with its complementary
nucleotide, creating an anti-sequence.
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