SESSION: 2019-2020

BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

TOPIC: central dogma of molecular biology

Name - Aryan Swarup Parida Guided By:-Class -

X II C Mrs. Sephali Tripathy Roll No.- 08
PGT Biology
This is to certify that this project on the topic – Central
Dogma of Molecular Biology has been successfully
completed by Aryan Swarup Parida of class XII –C under
the guidance of Mrs. Sephali Tripathy in particular
fulfillment of the curriculum of Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) leading to the award of annual
examination of the session 2019-20.

Teachers Signature External Examiner

Vice – Principal
This project is a supplement to the theoretical classroom
knowledge . It helps to understand the subject more
precisely.

The subject matter of the book has been written in

accordance with the latest syllabus prescribed by the CBSE
and other boards secondary education. The book has been
designed as a reference rather than copy down the
instruments.

This book of project has its own identity because of the

following features :

 The subject matter has been written in a simple and

lucid language.
 A brief information about theoretical aspect of the
topics has been given.
 Each topic has been fairly illustrated with all possible
details.

-Aryan
In the accomplishment of this project successfully, many
people have best owned upon me their blessings and the
heart pledged support, this time I am utilizing to thank all
the people who have been concerned with this project.

Primarily I would thank god for being able to complete this

project with success. Then I would like to thanks my
principal Mr. Artatran Mishra and biology teacher Mrs.
Sephali Tripathy, whose valuable guidance has been the
ones that helped me patch this project and make it a full
proof success.

Then I would like to thank my parents, brother and friends

who have helped me with their valuable suggestions and
guidance which has been very helpful in various phases
for the completion of the project.

Last but not the least I would like to thank my classmates

who have helped me a lot .
In the year 1869, with the indentification of an acidic
substance by Friedrich Mischer which he named it as
Nuclein . Altmann found these substances acidic in nature,
hence he named it as Nucleic acid. After this scientist
started to find the structure or molecular composition of
factors which were stated by Mendel.

In 1953 , James Watson and Francis Crick proposed a

double helix model for DNA molecule for which he was
awarded Nobel Prize. One of the hallmarks of their
proposition was base pairing between two strands of
polynucleotide chains. However this was based on Erwin
Chargaff s Rule, states that no. of Purine and Pyrimidine
occur in equal amounts in an organism.

The unequivocal proof that DNA is the genetic material

came from the experiments of Alfred Hershey and Martha
Chase. Then Watson and Crick proposed a scheme of DNA
replication. But experimentally the semiconservative
model of DNA replication was put forward by Meselson and
Stahl .
The central dogma of molecular biology is an explanation of the flow
of genetic information within a biological system. Central dogma was
originally formulated in 1958 by the English molecular biologist Francis
Harry Crompton Crick stating that the biological information flows in
the unidirectional pattern: DNARNAProtein.
But an exception to this one way flow of information was reported in
1970 by H.Temin and D.Baltimore. They independently discovered
reverse transcription in some viruses. This viruses produce an enzyme
reverse transcriptase which can synthesize DNA over RNA template.
These two scientists were awarded Nobel prize. The modified flow of
information now can be show as follows:
Transcription is the first step of DNA based gene expression [gene is a
short part of DNA that encodes for a protein].The process of copying
genetic information from one strand of DNA into RNA is known as
transcription.The principle of complementary base pairing governs the
process of transcription. In transcription only a segment of DNA and
only one of the strands is copied into RNA.Here only one strand is
template strand while in replication both strands are template.
Reasons for both the strands are copied during transcription:
1. If both strands act as template, they would code for RNA
molecule with different sequences and in turn if they code would
be different . Hence one segment of the DNA would be coding
for two different proteins.This would complicate the gene
information transfer machinery.
2. The two RNA molecules produced simultaneously would be
complementary to each other, hence would form a double
stranded RNA .This would prevent the translation of RNA int
proteins.

Transcription unit:
The segment of DNA that takes part in transcription is called
Transcription unit . It has three components:

1. A promoter
 2. The structural gene
3. A terminator

TEMPLATE STRAND AND CODING STRAND

The the two strands of DNA have opposite polarity and the DNA –
dependent RNA polymerase catalyse the polymerization only in one
direction i.e , 5/3/ polarity. The strand that has the polarity 3/5 / act as
template and is called template strand or non-coding strand. The other
strand with polarity 5/3/ and the sequence same as RNA , except
thymine at the place of uracil is called the coding strand or non-
template strand.
The structural genes are flanked on both sides by a promter and a
terminator in transcription unit.

Promoter sequences are present upstream towards 5/ end of the

structural gene of transcription unit and the terminator is present
downstream at 3/end of coding strand and it defines the end of the
process of transcription. The reference is made with respect to the
polarity of coding strand.
The the presence of a promoter in a transcription unit defines the
template and coding strands.
 A gene is defined as the functional unit of inheritance .
 Cistron is defined as a functional unit of gene, and it is a segment
coding for a polypeptide.
The structural gene in a transcription unit is monocistronic (mostly in
eukaryotes) and polycistronic(mostly in prokaryotes or
bacteria).Monocistronic gee synthesizes one type of polypeptide or
protein. Polycistronic gene synthesizes different proteins.
The monocistronic structural genes have interrupted coding sequences
i.e the genes in eukaryotes are split. The coding sequences are
expressed are defined as exons which appear in mature or processed
RNA. The exons are interrupted by introns. Introns are intervening
sequences that do not appear in mature or processed RNA.
Split gene was discovered by R.J.Roberts and Philip Sharp.

TYPES OF RNA
There are 3 types of RNA: mRNA (messenger RNA), trna (transfer
RNA) and rRNA(ribosomal RNA).
1) mRNA :-
It is also called template/nuclear/informational RNA as it carries
genetic information provided by DNA , leaves the cell nucleus and
moves to the cytoplasm where the proteins are made.
It is the longest of all RNA and constitutes 5% of total RNA in cell.
 2)rRNA:-
It is the component of the ribosome, which is essential for the protein
synthesis.
It is the predominant RNA in the cell, comprising around 80% of total
cellular RNA and it also has a catalytic role during translation.
In eukaryotes , 4 types of rRNA) s found are 28s, 18s, 5.85s and 5s
whereas, in prokaryotes three types of rRNA) s found are 23s, 16s and
5s. It is the most stable type of RNA.

3)tRNA :- The existence of tRNA was postulated by Francis.Crick.

It was also known as soluble RNA(sRNA). These constitute about 15%
of total cellular RNA and the most smallest RNA.
It act as an adapter molecule that would on one hand read the code
and on the other hand would bind to specific amino acid .It act as
intermediate between triplet code mRNA and amino acid sequence of
polypeptide chain.
All tRNA molecules have a guanine residue at its 5/ terminal end. At its
3/end, unpaired –CCA sequence is present. Amino acid gets attached at
this end only. tRNAs are specific for each amino acid. There are no
tRNAs for stop codons.
The three dimensional structure of the tRNA was proposed by Kim
and Klug to be inverted L- shaped and it is the actual structure of
tRNA. The secondary structure of tRNA has been depicted as it looks
like a clover-leaf.
There are three loops in tRNA:
1.Aminoacyl synthetase binding loop or DHU (dihydroxyuridine)
loop.
2.Ribosomal binding loop with 7 unpaired bases.
3.Anticodon loop with 7 unpaired bases. 3 bases from this act as
anticordon for a triplet codon present on mRNA.
It occurs in cytoplasm with the help of a transcripting enzme i.e, DNA-
dependent RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase is only of one type and
transcribe all types of RNAs . All the three RNAs are needed to
synthesize a protein in a cell.
RNA polymerase is a holoenzyme that is made of polypeptides
(αββ/ω) σ . The enzyme without σ subunit is referred to as core
enzyme. The process of transcription completes in 3 steps –

1. INITIATION:- It is catalysed by sigma factor or initiation factor.

It binds to the promoter site of DNA and confers specificity.
In prokaryotes recognition sequence is present in promoter region at
upstream for RNA polymerase binding e.g –
1)TATAAT or Pribnow box -10 sequence or b.p upstream from the
start point.
2)TTGACA- 35 sequence as recognition sequence.
RNA polymerase binds to promoter region of DNA and the
transcription begins. It uses nucleoside triphosphates as substrate and
polymerises in a template – depended fashion following the rule of
complementarity and after initiation σ factor gets removed.
2.ELONGATION:- The RNA polymerase (core enzyme) is only
capable of catalyzing the process of elongation.
 3.TERMINATION:- Rho factor( is required for termination of
transcription.