Biochemistry of the Genome (Microbiology)

Recall cards on the biochemistry of the genome. The classic experiments that revealed DNA as the genetic material: Miescher's nuclein, Kossel's bases, the Mendel and chromosomal-theory work of Boveri, Sutton, and Morgan, Beadle and Tatum's one gene-one enzyme hypothesis, McClintock's transposons, Griffith's transformation, the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty identification of DNA, and the Hershey-Chase experiment. The structure and function of DNA: nucleotides and nucleosides, deoxyribose, purines and pyrimidines, phosphodiester bonds, complementary base pairing and hydrogen bonds, Chargaff's rules, the antiparallel right-handed double helix, major and minor grooves, and denaturation and reannealing. The structure and function of RNA: ribose and uracil, single strands, messenger RNA, ribosomal RNA and ribozymes, transfer RNA and anticodons, and transcription and translation. And the structure and function of cellular genomes: genome, gene, genotype and phenotype, constitutive and housekeeping genes, prokaryotic versus eukaryotic chromosomes, ploidy, supercoiling and topoisomerases, histones and chromatin, plasmids, noncoding DNA and epigenetics, and representative genome sizes.