LECTURE 4 – INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GENOME

WHAT WATSON AND CRICK KNEW?

- Darwin – published origin of specie and found that change was the basis for evolution
- Meischer F. – showed that DNA exists, found nuclein
- Levene P. – found that components of DNA were linked in the order phosphate – sugar –
base. These units were called nucleotide
- Griffith, Avery, McCloud and McCarty – found that DNA is the genetic material
- Schrödinger – chromosomes are law code and executive power
- Linus Pauling – competitor for the structure of DNA and found the alpha helix structure in
proteins
- Chargaff – concentration in DNA of [A]=[T] and [G]=[C]
- Rosalind Franklin – made x ray images of DNA crystals

WHAT WASTSON AND CRICK DETERMINED:

- DNA is double stranded, right-handed and double helix

- The sugars and phosphates form the backbone
- Bases are inside of the backbone and pair with each other
- 2 DNA strands are anti parallel and go in opposite directions
- Purine pairs with pyrimidine

THE STRUCTURE OF DNA:

- The width of a single DNA molecule is approximately 20 Angstroms or 2 nm

- The length of one repeating nucleotide chain link is about 3.4 Angstroms
- Around 10.4 nucleotide units are required to complete one full twist of the DNA helix which
is 34 Angstroms

NUCLEOTIDES:

- All nucleotides contain a base, a sugar and a negatively charged phosphate group
- DNA and RNA have 5 carbon sugars
- DNA had deoxyribose sugar and RNA has a ribose sugar
- Uracil is found in RNA and thymine is found in DNA
- DNA is double stranded and RNA is single stranded
- C, U and T bases are pyrimidines and G and A bases are purines

CENTRAL DOGMA:

NUCLEOSOME:

- DNA is coated in proteins so that both the DNA and proteins make chromatin
 - DNA is wound around clusters of histone proteins which are connected by short stretches of
DNA. The nucleosomes are coiled to form cylinders which are then coiled further several
times to form fibres that are visible in chromosomes

DNA REPLICATION:

- During replication the polynucleotide strands of DNA molecule separate and each serve as a
template for the synthesis of new strands
- This type of replication is called semi conservative replication and after replication, each
DNA molecule contains one old polynucleotide and one new polynucleotide strand

DNA REPAIR:

- When DNA is damaged by ultraviolet light , a section of one nucleotide chain is removed by a
repair enzyme and the remaining chain is used as a template by DNA polymerase to repair
the DNA