Molecular Biology

Lec. 1

Hussein Sabit, PhD

Professor of Cancer Epigenetics, IAU.
 200 different types of cells

30 trillion cells
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 How DNA is packed in the nucleus?

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DNA Packaging
 DNA structure

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 DNA Condensation: Why?

Estimation of human chromosome lengths reports

205.00 cm for the diploid male genome and 208.23 cm for
female, corresponding to weights of 6.41 and 6.51
picograms (pg), respectively.

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 DNA Condensation: Why?

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 DNA packing- Superstructure

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 DNA packing- Superstructure
Higher-order DNA compaction in a eukaryotic chromosome. This model
shows the levels of organization that could provide the observed degree of
DNA compaction in the chromosomes of eukaryotes.
First the DNA is wrapped around histone octamers, then H1 stimulates
formation of the 30 nm filament.
Further levels of organization are not well understood but seem to involve
further coiling and loops in the form of rosettes, which also coil into thicker
structures.
Overall, progressive levels of organization take the form of coils upon coils
upon coils. It should be noted that in cells, the higher-order structures
(above the 30 nm filament) are unlikely to be as uniform as depicted here.
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 Nucleosomes: The Basic Units of DNA Condensation
• The material of chromosomes, both protein and
DNA, is often referred to as chromatin. The
protein component is about equal in mass to the
DNA component.
• Histones constitute the largest protein
component of chromatin, are highly conserved,
basic proteins that assemble into octameric
complexes containing two each of four different
histone subunits.
• DNA wraps around the histones to form
condensed nucleosomes.

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 Nucleosome structure

o Each nucleosome is composed of 8

histones in bead & 1 outside.
o Each bead: is surrounded by 140 bp
DNA and there are 60 bp in the linker
region.
o Space between beads is about 14 nm.

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 Nucleosome structure
• Histones are rich in the basic amino acid arginine
and lysine, which together make up about 25%
of the amino acid residues in any given histone
protein.
• Histones H3 and H4 are nearly identical in all
eukaryotes, suggesting strict conservation of
their functions.
• Histones H1, H2A, and H2B show less sequence
similarity, but on the whole, they are more
conserved than other types of proteins.
• Salt bridges between positively charged histones
and negatively charges DNA play a major role in
stabilizing DNA-histone complex.
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 DNA and Genes

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 Human DNA facts

• Genome = 3.2 billion base pairs of DNA across 24 different

distinct chromosomes (22 autosomes + X + Y)
• Take about 9.5 years to read out loud (without stopping) the
three billion pairs of bases in one person's genome sequence
• Biologist simply say 23 pairs of chromosomes
• For diploid cells = 6.4 billion base pairs per somatic cell

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 What is DNA needed for?

• Genetic information is transferred from DNA and converted to

protein
• RNA molecules work as messengers
• Proteins are the biological workers

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 Chromosome

Condenced scaffold

fibers connected to
Levels of chromosome scaffold

condensation
chromatin fibers

chromatin

DNA
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 Genes
• A gene: is a DNA sequence that is needed to encode amino acid
sequence of a protein
• Composed of exons, introns and different control elements
• Exon – protein coding sequence 19,000 genes in
• Intron – intervening sequence each human cell.
328, 000
transcript

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 Gene structure and splicing

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 Gene structure and splicing
DMD gene is the largest known
gene in humans. It is 2.4 million
base-pairs in size, comprises 79
exons and takes over 16 hours to
be transcribed
• Genes vary a lot in size:
• Humans: average 3000bp
• largest 2.4 million bp
• Genes are separated by sequences with unknown function
• Only one strand of the DNA carries biological information
called template strand, other is passive strand.

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 Some definitions
• Genome - The complete set of information in an organism’s DNA
• That is the haploid complement for all organisms
• Chromosome - A single molecule of DNA
• Circular or linear
• Gene - a section of the DNA coding for the production of a single
protein
• Karyotype - figure or picture showing the full set of chromosomes
from a cell during cell division when they are condensed and
visible...

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 Genome sizes

• Humans do not have the largest genome size - Fish tend to

have these
• An ant species has just 1 chromosome
• No real association between genome size and evolutionary
complexity - human near the middle some where

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 Chromosome morphology

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 Thank you

9/8/21 Dr. Hussein Sabit