Section 6.5/6.

6 Abdullah Hanoosh

6.5 DNA Organization in Eukaryotes and

Prokaryotes

The Packing Of Eukaryotic DNA

 DNA is wound around special proteins called Histones

Histones: Positively charged proteins, and the negative charged DNA strands are attracted to
them

Nucleosome: a unit of DNA storage, consisting of eight histones with DNA strands wrapped
around them; the DNA around each nucleosome is about 147 nucleotides in length

 Forms the fundamental repeating units of eukaryotic chromatin, which is used to pack
the large eukaryotic genomes into the nucleus while still ensuring appropriate access to
it

Solenoid: a group of six nucleosomes

Prokaryotic DNA Organization

 The bacterial DNA consists almost entirely of one chromosome that is commonly
circular
 Unbound by a nuclear membrane, the DNA is less tightly bound and more easily
accessed by the enzymes and other molecules involved in replication than eukaryotic
DNA is
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 Smaller circular pieces of DNA float throughout the cell

 In a process called conjugation, these smaller circular pieces of DNA, called plasmids, are
able to exit one cell and enter another.

Supercoiling: the continuous twisting of prokaryotic DNA that reduces the volume of the DNA

Telomeres
 Another problem in eukaryotic DNA structure is the loss of DNA during the replication
 DNA polymerase produces small pieces of DNA (the Okazaki fragments) in the 5’ > 3’
direction of the lagging strand
 The 5’ end of each Okazaki fragment is initially attached to an RNA primer
 The last Okazaki fragment ion the lagging strand begins at the last RNA primer position,
which is located at the end of the strand
 The DNA being assembled as part of each following Okazaki fragments and then
removes and replaces the RNA primer
 On the last Okazaki fragment, there is no DNA adjacent to the 5’ end
 RNA is removed but not replaced, meaning no DNA is assembled on the lagging strand
beyond the position of the last primer
 The final DNA is shorter since the last sequence at the end of the parent strand is not
copied
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Telomere: a repeating sequence of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects coding
regions from being lost during replication

6.6 DNA Replication and Aging

 In electron micrographs of specially prepared chromosomes, telomeres appear like
small dots at each end of the chromosomes. They act like aglets (the Bits of plastic
or metal at the ends of a shoelace) by capping off the ends of the chromosomes
 This function is crucial to life of a eukaryotic cell because telomeres protect the
DNA from losing valuable coding information during replication

Functions of the Telomeres:

Role of Telomeres During Replication

 Attached to the ends of DNA strands, telomeres are repeating sequences of nucleotides
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Cell Senescence: the period in a cell’s lifespan when it loses the ability to divide and grow (also
referred to as cell aging)
Hayflick: the total number of times that a normal cell can divide

Telomerase: an enzyme that adds new telomere sequences to the ends of chromosomes

 The remaining length of the telomeres within a cell can tells us the age of the cell and
how many more times the cell will be able to divide effectively
 This may play a role on how our bodies change as we get older
 A cell begins “aging” when it reaches its Hayflick limit and senescence begins
 The senescence of a specific cell groups in our bodies can be evidence that strongly links
to certain age-related diseases
 Unlike healthy cells, Cancer cells don’t use up the telomeres in their DNA over time and
begin cell senescence
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