MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2017/2018
- Teacher
- SUSANNA SPISANI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/11
Training objectives
- The students will learn the molecular basis of cell function regulation in order to facilitate the study of basic techniques in design of both traditional and novel pharmaceuticals
Prerequisites
- general concept of cellular biology and biochemistry
Course programme
- The course contemplate 48 hours of frontal lectures
Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA: differences
Structure, conformations and topology of nuclear DNA. Supercoli and LK. Mechanism of action of Topoisomerase I and II.
Organization of DNA in eukaryotes. Chromosomes and chromatin. Histones and their transient chemical modifications. Remodeling, epigenetic transmission; karyotype. Eterochromatization of X-chromosome: theory of mosaicism
Gene and Genome: function and organization in eukaryotes. Unique gene sequences, moderately and highly repetitive (micro-minisatellites); polymorphisms of repeats and of single nucleotide (SNP).
Replication of DNA in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Mechanisms of action of DNA polymerases, enzymes involved in the replication fork; Telomeres and telomerase and their mechanism of action.
Molecular mechanisms of mutations: chromosomal, genomic and genic mutations with some examples. Mutagens
Repairs DNA base excision repair, nucleotide excision, homologous recombination and the mismatch and repair in replication fork
Genetic recombination: Homologous recombination: in bacteria: Holliday model and proteins involved; in eukaryotics in meiosis and proteins involved. Recombination frequency for mapping genes, genetic map, Morgan unit.
b) Site specific recombination: eg Recombination of immunoglobulin genes in B cells and T cell lymphocyte receptor synthesis in eukaryotes.
RNA: Structure, molecular mechanism of transcription in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Mechanism of action of RNA polymerases.
Regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes: positive control, eg. operon of lactose; eg negative control. tryptophan operon.
Regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes: activators (enhancers), silencers and insulator. combined control/synergistic effect between proteins.
Regulatory proteins DNA-binding, with common motifs: Eleca-turn-helix, finger zinc (eg steroid hormone receptors) and leucine zipper.
Processing and maturation of the eukaryotic mRNA: capping, polyadenylation and splicing introns; transcripts simple and complex; transport and degradation. Processing of rRNA and tRNA.
Genetic code: properties.
Protein synthesis: molecular mechanism in eukaryotocs and prokaryotics. Activation of amino acids, initiation, elongation, translocation and termination. Energy cost.
Regulation of translation
Specific topics can be further developed on the recomended texts Didactic methods
- frontal lectures on all the course’s topics with the use of slides and blackboard with chalk
Learning assessment procedures
- The aim of the oral exam is to verify at which level the learning objectives previously described have been acquired.The ability of linking different subjects related to the course is evaluated, rather than the ability of “repeating” specific topics tackled in the course
Reference texts
- Teacher’s slides;
Specific topics can be further developed in the following texts:
Biologia Molecolare del Gene, J.D. Watson e coll Ed. Zanichelli, 2015, 7° Ed
Biologia molecolare della cellula, B. Alberts e coll.Ed. Zanichelli, 2016, 6° Ed
L'essenziale di Biologia Molecolare della Cellula, B.Alberts et all. Zanichelli 2015, 5 Ed
Biologia Molecolare, G.Capranico e coll, EdiSES 2016
Biologia Molecolare: principi e tecniche, M.M.Cox e coll., Ed. Zanichelli, 2013, 1° Ed italiana
Biologia Cellulare e Molecolare, G. Karp 5° Ediz, EdiSES, 2015
