CHAPTER 1
Cells and Genomes
Questions
1-1 Your friend studies the SARS virus and tells you that the SARS virus packages its
genetic material as a positive-strand single-stranded RNA. A positive-strand RNA
is an RNA molecule that can serve as a translatable template to produce protein.
Given what you know about the production of nucleic acids in cells, would you
expect that the positive-strand RNA molecule could be used as a template to
produce other positive-strand RNA molecules, or would you expect that another
nucleic acid intermediary would have to be produced first? Explain.
1-2 You are interested in studying HIV. On reading the literature, you learn that the
genetic information for the HIV virus is a single-stranded RNA molecule. Given
what you know about the properties of nucleic acids, would you expect the ratios
of purines to pyrimidine bases in the HIV viral RNA to be the same as the ratio
found in the hereditary information of all living cells? Explain.
1-3 You have two computer files, one containing the complete Escherichia coli
(bacterial) genomic sequence and the other containing the complete Drosophila
melanogaster (fruit fly) genomic sequence. A new student in the lab made a
mistake and renamed the files “A” and “B.” However, you do know that file A is
1125 kilobytes while file B is 30.5 megabytes in size. Without opening the file
and examining the sequence, can you predict which file is more likely to contain
the genomic sequence for E. coli and which file contains the genomic sequence
for Drosophila? Explain.
1-4 You have two tubes. Tube 1 contains the DNA encoding the genome of a human
being and tube 2 contains the DNA encoding the genome of a lithotrophic
archaean that lives adjacent to a deep-sea hydrothermal vent that has an average
temperature of 115°C (note that normal human body temperature is 37°C). You
lend your tubes to a chemist friend, who loses the label on your tubes. However,
he was able to determine the percentage molar ratios of As and Ts in these tubes,
and finds that the DNA in tube 1 is composed of 59% As and Ts while the DNA
in tube 2 is composed of 48% As and Ts. Which tube contains the human DNA
and which tube contains the archaean DNA? Explain.
1-5 The adult human intestine contains hundreds of species of bacteria, and these
bacteria often have specialized niches within the intestine. Members of the
Bacteriodetes genus are common members of the intestinal flora, and the
genomes of several species within this genus have been sequenced, including a
species (B. dulcis) that is particularly capable of digesting plant polysaccharides.
When the sequences of the Bacteriodetes species were compared, it was found
that orthologous genes had between 60 to 80% amino acid identity between
species. B. dulcis was found to have a set of genes encoding enzymes important
for polysaccharide degradation that did not exist in the other species.
Interestingly, sequence comparisons of these polysaccharide-degrading genes
suggested that the closest relatives of these genes were in archaea and not in
bacteria. Provide two possible explanations for how this set of genes could have
arisen.
1-6 It is now generally accepted that mitochondria and chloroplasts originated as free-
living bacteria that were engulfed by an ancestral eucaryotic cell. However, it is
also known that the mitochondrial DNA and the chloroplast DNA lack genes for
many essential functions. This means that, were the mitochondria or the
chloroplast to “escape” the modern day eucaryotic cell, the mitochondria or the
chloroplasts could not survive on their own. Explain what has happened that
allows the mitochondria and chloroplasts to survive in the host cell, even though
they lack the DNA encoding essential genes in their DNA.
1-7 Your friend obtained the sequence of an mRNA that encodes a gene important for
tooth formation in cheetahs. Since she knows that the Us in an mRNA sequence
were encoded by corresponding Ts in the DNA, she changes the Us in the mRNA
to Ts and uses this nucleotide sequence to search the published genomic sequence
of humans for a homologous gene. Her database search identifies a region of
human DNA that has 35% identity with the cheetah nucleotide sequence
(meaning, if you line up the two nucleotide sequences, 35% of the corresponding
bases are exactly the same). However, when she showed this human DNA region
to her boss, her boss took a quick look and told her that her search had not
identified a homologous gene and that there was a better way to conduct her
search. She has not yet taken cell biology, and turns to you for help. Given your
knowledge of how a cell encodes and uses genetic information, devise a better
strategy for using this nucleotide sequence to identify the homologous gene in
humans.
1-8 Explain what an amphipathic molecule is and why in an aqueous solution a
bilayer of amphipathic molecules self-aggregates to form a vesicle that contains
water, whereas a monolayer of amphipathic molecules self-aggregates into a
sphere that excludes water.
Answers
