5. Alpha amanitin is a drug that binds RNA polymerase andprevents it from functioning in the cell (this is the compound thatis found in poison mushrooms). The reason people die when theyconsume alpha amanitin is:
a) Alpha amanitin prevents gene expression from occurring in thecell
b) DNA replication is directly inhibited by alpha amantin
c) Alpha amanitin binds tightly to the messenger RNAs that aremade in the cell, preventing translation
d) Alpha amanitin binds to nuclear pores preventing thetransport of messenger RNA into the cytoplasm
6. In order for transcriptional initiation to begin in E. colithe following elements are needed:
a) an origin and RNA polymerase
b) initiator protein and a promoter
c) the sigma subunit of RNA polymerase and an RNA template
d) RNA polymerase and a promoter
e) helicase and primase
Questions 7 and 8. You are studying two species of closelyrelated snakes, one species lives in sandy desert area and has paletan skin and the species lives in a volcanic rock area and has darkbrown skin. You a sequence the DNA from each type of snake anddiscover a gene encoding a protein that transports pigment into theskin cells. The pigment transporter protein is responsible for skincolor. When you analyze the DNA coding sequence of the pigmenttransporter from each snake you find these two DNA sequences (hashmarks have been added to indicate the reading frame):
pale tan snake: GCG/TTG/GAC/TGC/ACC (DNA template strand)CGC/AAC/CTG/ACG/TGG (complementary strand) dark brown snake:ACG/TTG/GAC/TGC/ACC (DNA template strand) TGC/AAC/CTG/ACG/TGG(complementary strand)
7. From these sequences you conclude:
a) that the amino acid sequence of the pigment transporters forthe two proteins are almost identical
b) that the amino acid sequence of the pigment transporters forthe two proteins are very dissimilar
c) that the amino acid sequence of the pigment transporters forthe two proteins are identical
8. Since the skin color is different in each snake, you concludefrom the sequence data above that:
a) the genetic code in the skin cells in each of these snakes isdifferent
b) the DNA sequence encoding the entire gene for pigmenttransporters in these two snakes is different
c) that one of the codons in the gene for the pigmenttransporter in these two snakes is different
9. You are analyzing eukaryotic cells that have been exposed tothe radioactive uracil. In most cells the radioactive uracil isinitially localized in the nucleus and then moves from the nucleusto the cytoplasm. However, you observe that in some cells theradioactive molecules stay in the nucleus and never arrive in thecytoplasm. This is most likely a defect in:
a) the transcription of the DNA
b) the processing of the mRNA
c) the translation of the RNA
d) the labeling of the RNA
e) the replication of the DNA
10. Which of the following is true of both eukaryotic andbacterial transcription? (select all that are true)
a) Transcription factors must bind the promoter before RNApolymerase initiates transcription
b) Messenger RNAs must be spliced before translation begins inorder to produce the appropriate gene product
c) During transcription only one DNA strand is used as atemplate to make the messenger RNA
d) Termination of transcription occurs when the RNA polymerasetranscribes a hairpin structure in the RNA followed by a string ofU
