Monday, 17 October 2011

Grade 12 Biotech in a Nutshell



10. Restriction Endonucleases/ restriction enzymes


  • act as scissors and cut specific base-pair sequence known as recognition site
  • these enzymes are used to cut double stranded DNA in a predictable and precise manner
  • most recognition sites are characterized by a complementary palindromic sequence.
  • palindromic = bot strands have same base sequence when read in 5' to 3'
  • enzymes bind, disrupts (hydrolysis reaction) the phosphodiester bond btwn two base pairs
  • then hydrogen bonds in between the cuts are broken

9. Sticky/ Blunt Ends

  • sticky ends= ends of DNA fragment with short s.s. overhangs, resulting from cleavage by restriction enzymes
  • blunt ends= fully base paired ends of DNA fragment resulting from cleavage by restriction enzymes
  • sticky ends more useful b/c it can be joined more easily to other sticky end that has been produced by the same restriction endonuclease through complementary base pairing
8. Methylases
  • enzymes that add methyl group to one of the nucleotides found in a restriction endonuclease recognition site
  • prevent the bacteria's immune system to cleave its own DNA

7. DNA Ligase
  • glues two fragments of DNA, generated using the same restriction enzyme, together
  • two fragments are naturally attracted to each other b/c of their complementary base pairs
  • hydrogen bonds will form btwn the nucleotides but it is not a stable arrangement
  • phosphodiester linkage must be reformed 
  • DNA ligase uses condensation reaction and drives out a molecule of water to form phosphodiester bond
6. Gel Electrophoresis

  • separation of charged molecules by size in a gel
  • DNA -> negatively charged, relatively similar mass nucleotides
  • the fragments are put in a gel where one side is +'vely charged and other -'vely
  • DNA fragments are attracted to +'ve side and moves towards it
  • long fragments don't go that far and small fragments move closer to +'ve side b/c they are small and can navigate through pores
  • agarose = polysaccharide found in seaweed used to form gell meshwork

5. Vector Cloning/Transformation
  • the fragments of DNA with sticky ends are put into a plasmid of a bacteria
  • plasmids are engineered to have multiple-cloning site, a region in plasmid that contain recognition sites of a number of restriction endonucleases
  • introduction of foreign DNA, usually by plasmid or virus, into a bacterial cell
  • plasmids are vectors
  • bacterium that readily take up foreighn DNA is called competent cell
  • selective plating isolates the cells with recombinant DNA
  • cloned vectors have antibiotic-resistance gene thus if transformation is successful the bacteria will be able to grow on media that contain the antibiotic
4. PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction


  • similar to DNA replication in nucleus but instead of helicase and gyrase, heat is used to separate the strands
  • at 94C - 96C the hydrogen bonds are broken
  • DNA primers are synthesized in lab and is used to start the elongation
  • DNA primers has to be complementary to the target area to be copied
  • the temperature is brought down to 50C - 65C to let the primers anneal
  • Taq polymerase starts building the complementary starnds at 72C

3. RFLP: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism
  • polymorphism= difference in DNA sequence,, coding or non-coding, that can be detected btwn individuals
  • polymorphism in coding region can be identified with specific mutations. ex. sickle  cell
  • RFLP= method used to compare differences in DNA fragments btwn individuals using restriction endonucleases
2. DNA Sequencing

  • Sanger dideoxy method is most popular
  • similar to DNA replication
  • need 4 identical single-stranded DNA with radioactively labelled primer in 4 different test tubes
  • DNA polymerase and a supply of free nucleotides in form of all four deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dATP, dTTP, dGTP, and dCTP) are added
  • each test tube contains dideoxy analogue of one of the deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs)
  • dideoxy analogue stops elongation b/c it does not have -OH group on the 3' carbon to create a phosphodiester bond
  • thus, different lengths of complementary DNA is built
  • the fragments can be read in a gel

Figure 5-39

Figure 5-39

1. Application
  • restriction enzymes are expensive thus cannot use many in real life
  • complete digestion is also unrealistic 

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