Adult and Continuing Education – Cleveland Extension Molecular Diagnostic Questions

Adult and Continuing Education – Cleveland Extension Molecular Diagnostic Questions

1} When to analyze DNA vs RNA: In what type of situations/diseases is it more appropriate to analyze one’s DNA and when it is more appropriate to analyze RNA samples?

2} Poly-A tail and 5′ cap:In eukaryotic cells, RNA transcripts undergo some processing after transcription, such as addition of 5’ cap and poly-A tail. What is the general role of these two events? Why do you think it might be more important for eukaryotes to have these modification compared to prokaryotes?

3} Deleterious effects of point mutations:A point mutation in DNA sequence can sometimes completely alter protein structure/function leading to a disease. Can you think of an example of such a disease? Describe the specific DNA sequence change and what happens to the protein due to the change.

4} Point mutations with little effect:In contrast to the previous question, a point mutation in DNA sometimes have very little effect on protein function and human health. In what situations a point mutation has minimum effect?

5) Exonuclease?:What is the major role of exonuclease? What might happen if this function is lost from the cells

6} Regulation of DNA replication vs RNA transcription: In the lecture, we talked a little bit about the regulation of RNA transcription, but not much about DNA replication. What do you think is the major differences? (Think about when does a particular RNA is transcribed, vs when DNA is replicated. Are all the genes transcribed at the same time?)

7} DNA/RNA calculations

• • Suppose you have 100uL RNA. Take 10 uL, dilute in water to make 1000 uL solution and obtained OD260 = 0.3. What is the original concentration of RNA? How much RNA in total did you get?
  • Show your calculation, and let us know what dilution factor you used. What would be the difference if you are calculating DNA concentration instead of RNA?