What are the four classes of biomacromolecules?
carbohydrates (polysaccharides)
fatty acids (fats, lipids, membranes)
amino acids (proteins)
nucleotides (nucleic acids)
Peptides, Carbohydrates, and Nucleic Acids are Biopolymers. Which type of reaction is formally proceeding in their formation? How is the reverse reaction called? Show the formation reaction for a disaccharide.
Condensation/hydrolysis
Which building block does a phospholipid consist of? What macromolecular assembly do they form in nature?
Describe an example of how artificial lipids can be used to study membranes.
lipids with an N=N bond in their chain
upon photoactivation, lipids can switch from stretched to kinked conformation (imitating unsaturated fatty acids)
allows study of membrane fluidity etc.
What is the structural difference between DNA and RNA? Use chemical structures to illustrate your answer.
Why do we need a chemical distinction between RNA and DNA?
shorter halflife of RNA because of autocleavage
way to enzymatically distinguish between RNA and DNA
How is artificial synthesis of RNA or DNA easier than synthesizing polysaccharides?
less building blocks (only 4+)
less possibilities to react (monosaccharides can react at every OH group, DNA/RNA in this setting only at the sugar or phosphate group)
Name examples of both natural and artificial functional nucleic acids.
Natural:
gene expression (genomic DNA)
RNA processing (self-splicing RNA)
telomerase RNA
Artificial:
engineered riboswitches
DNA origami
What is an aptamer? What is a riboswitch? Where can you find an example in nature and how is this structural element important in the regulation of protein expression?
Aptamers
short sequences of artificial DNA, RNA, XNA, or peptide that bind a specific target molecule, or family of target molecules
Riboswitch
regulatory segment of a messenger RNA molecule that binds a small molecule, resulting in a change in production of the proteins encoded by the mRNA
Examples:
RNase P (tRNA maturation)
ribosome (peptidyl transfer)
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