Chapter 1 1.1 In a few sentences, what were Mendels key ideas about inheritance?

ANS: Mendel postulated transmissible factors enesto e!plain the inheritance of traits" #e disco$ered that enes e!ist in different forms, which we now call alleles" %ach or anism carries two copies of each ene" &urin reproduction, one of the ene copies is randomly incorporated into each amete" 'hen the male and female ametes unite at fertili(ation, the ene copy number is restored to two" different alleles may coe!ist in an or anism" &urin the production of ametes, they separate from each other without ha$in been altered by coe!istence" 1.2 )oth &NA and *NA are composed of nucleotides" 'hat molecules combine to form a nucleotide? ANS: %ach nucleotide consists of a su ar, a nitro en+containin base, and a phosphate" 1.3 'hich bases are present in &NA? 'hich bases are present in *NA? 'hich su ars are present in each of these nucleic acids? ANS: ,he bases present in &NA are adenine, thymine, uanine, and cytosine- the bases present in *NA are adenine, uracil, uanine, and cytosine" ,he su ar in &NA is deo!yribose- the su ar in *NA is ribose" 1.4 'hat is a enome?

ANS: A enome is the set of all the &NA molecules that are characteristic of an or anism" %ach &NA molecule forms one chromosome in a cell of the or anism" 1.5 ,he se.uence of a strand of &NA is A,,/00/,0" If this strand ser$es as the template for &NA synthesis, what will be the se.uence of the newly synthesi(ed strand?

ANS: ,AA0//0A/ 1.6 A ene contains 121 codons" #ow many nucleotides are present in the enes codin se.uence? #ow many amino acids are e!pected to be present in the polypeptide encoded by this ene? ANS: ,here are 3 121 4 253 nucleotides in the polypeptide product will contain 121 amino acids" enes codin se.uence" Its

1.7 ,he template strand of a ene bein transcribed is 0,,/00A/," 'hat will be the se.uence of the *NA made from this template? ANS: /AA0//60, 1.8 'hat is the difference between transcription and translation?

ANS: ,ranscription is the production of an *NA chain usin a &NA chain as a template" ,ranslation is the production of a chain of amino acidsthat is, a polypeptide usin an *NA chain as a template" 1.9 *NA is synthesi(ed usin &NA as a template" Is &NA e$er synthesi(ed usin *NA as a template? %!plain" ANS: Sometimes &NA is synthesi(ed from *NA in a process called re$erse transcription" ,his process plays an important role in the life cycles of some $iruses" 1.10 ,he ene for + lobin is present in all $ertebrate species" 7$er millions of years, the &NA se.uence of this ene has chan ed in the linea e of each species" 0onse.uently, the amino acid se.uence of + lobin has also chan ed in these linea es" Amon the 121 amino acid positions in this polypeptide, human + obin differs from shark + lobin in 89 positions- it differs from carp + lobin in :; and from cow + lobin in 18" &o these data su est an e$olutionary phylo eny for these $ertebrate species? ANS: ,he human and cow + lobins are least different- therefore, on the assumption that differences in + lobin reflect the de ree of phylo enetic relationship, the human and the cow are the most closely related or anisms amon those mentioned" ,he ne!t closest <relati$e= of humans is the carp, and the most distant relati$e is the shark"

1.11 Sickle+cell anemia is caused by a mutation in one of the codons in the ene for + lobin- because of this mutation the si!th amino acid in the + lobin polypeptide is a $aline instead of a lutamic acid" A less se$ere type of anemia is caused by a mutation that chan es this same codon to one specifyin lysine as the si!th amino acid in the + lobin polypeptide" 'hat word is used to describe the two mutant forms of this ene? &o you think that an indi$idual carryin these two mutant forms of the + lobin ene would suffer from anemia? %!plain" ANS: ,he two mutant forms of the + lobin ene are properly described as alleles" )ecause neither of the mutant alleles can specify a <normal= polypeptide, an indi$idual who carries each of them would probably suffer from anemia" 1.12 #emophilia is an inherited disorder in which the blood clottin mechanism is defecti$e" )ecause of this defect, people with hemophilia may die from cuts or bruises, especially if internal or ans such as the li$er, lun s, or kidneys ha$e been dama ed" 7ne method of treatment in$ol$es in>ectin a blood+clottin factor that has been purified from blood donations" ,his factor is a protein encoded by a human ene" Su est a way in which modern enetic technolo y could be used to produce this factor on an industrial scale" Is there a way in which the inborn error of hemophilia could be corrected by human ene therapy? ANS: ,he ene for the human clottin factor could be isolated from the human enome and transferred into bacteria, which could then be rown in $ats to produce lar e amounts of the enes protein product" ,his product could be isolated from the bacteria, purified, and then in>ected into patients to treat hemophilia" Another approach would be to transfer a normal copy of the clottin factor ene into the cells of people who ha$e hemophilia" If e!pressed properly, the transferred normal ene mi ht be able to compensate for the mutant allele these people naturally carry" ?or this approach to succeed, the normal clottin factor ene would ha$e to be transferred into the cells that produce clottin factor, or into their precursors"