Dna and Dna Strand Essay

Submitted By appleting101
Words: 721
Pages: 3
Open Document
Epigenetic refers to the study of heritable changes of DNA In gene expression. It has the ability to influence what genes are turned on or off in our body. The aim of epigenetic research is to understand heritable gene regulation that is not encoded in the DNA sequence. The paper talks about the computational methods that used to solve epigenetic problems and how describe the concepts of cancer epigenetics. Epigenetics talks about how gene functions can be changed by not changing the DNA sequences at all. The field of epigenetics is among the fastest moving area in the molecular biology, it opens up an unprecedented research projects and analysis of epigenetic mechanisms. They also open up ideas for early diagnosis and treatments for cancers. Epigenetic regulation of the genes influences the gene expression by different mechanisms. They can either activate the genes or repress the chromatins inside the nucleus. One of the most important epigenetic mechanisms is called DNA methylation. DNA methylation usually happens in the regions where the CpG Islands are more abundant in the gene/s promoter region. What happens during DNA methylation is that a methyl group adds to the DNA strand by replacing the hydrogen atoms from the cytosine bases.. The process does not transcribe the cytosine into mRNA; it makes the chromatin more compactable, so that the transcriptions factors might not be able to bind to the promoters.
There are two types of DNA methylations: hypomethylation and hypermethylation, both of the methylations have been associated with cancer. Hypomethylation refers to less DNA methylation than the standard in the DNA and leads to up-regulation of the genes. It can cause cancer if the genes associates with tumorigenesis are upregulated. For example, histone H3k9 is used for transcriptional activation, it is associated with breast cancer and esophageal cancer. If hypomethylation happen in H3K9, they would be overexpressed and increase the chance of having breast and esophageal cancer. Repetitive elements make up at least half of the genome and they are highly methylated. Repetitive elements pack the DNA into heterochromatin (condensed chromatin structure) and ensure the stability of the chromosome. Hypomethylation of these regions can cause chromatin decondensation and affect the stability of the chromosome. Alu refers to short interspersed elements (SINEs) and LINE refers to long interspersed elements. They are the most studied repetitive elements in cancers. They contain promoter sequences to initiate gene transcription if unregulated. LINE-1 and Alu elements are normally silenced through DNA methylation. Hypomethylation of these two elements might cause cancer, because the activation of the LINE-1 and Alu and the rearrangement of DNA sequences by deletions or inversions. Hypermethylation means more DNA methylation in the DNA sequence, they can cause cancer as well as hypomethylation. Hypermethyations always happen in CpG islands. CpG stands for Cytosine-phosphate-guanosine. It is the regions that contain cytosine and guanosine in a high frequency than
Show More

Related Documents: Dna and Dna Strand Essay

Essay Dna and Dna Strand

Unit 8 Study Guide Lesson 1 1. What is DNA short for and what is its definition? Deoxyribonucleic acid the genetic material of a cell 2. What DNA discovery happened in 1950 and who discovered it? Erwin Chargaff-that the amount of guanine always equals the amount of cytosine, and the amount of adenine equals the amount of thymine, these are known as Chargaff’s rules 3. What DNA discovery happened in 1951 and who discovered it? Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins when an x-ray passes through…

Words 968 - Pages 4

Essay about Dna and Dna Polymerase

responsibility for posting refined answers to the guided readings - succinct, relevant, clear, and with pictures or a video to compliment. When contributing to the reading guide, follow these steps: 1) First complete the reading guide on your own from the DNA unit page. 2) Write your response to a question in word and then copy it. Be sure to upload pictures and/or video for each question. 3) Click on the edit button and then go to the appropriate question and paste your answer below it. Sign your contribution…

Words 3094 - Pages 13

Dna and Dna Nucleotides Nitrogenous Essay

sugar that is a component of DNA nucleotides Nitrogenous base- an organic base that contains nitrogen, such as a purine or pyrimidine; a subunit of a nucleotide in DNA and RNA Purine- a nitrogenous base that has a dou- ble-ring structure; one of the two general categories of nitrogenous bases found in DNA and RNA; either adenine or guanine Pyrimidine- a nitrogenous base that has a single-ring structure; one of the two gen- eral categories of nitrogenous bases found in DNA and RNA; thymine, cyto- sine…

Words 447 - Pages 2

Study guide Essay

12.2 DNA Structure Long before the bacteriophage studies were under way, biochemists knew that DNA contains only four types of nucleotides that are the building blocks of nucleic acids. Each consists of a 5 carbon sugar (in DNA it is deoxyribose), a phosphate group and one of the nitrogen bases (A, T, G, and C). All of their parts are joint in the same way. T and C are pyrimidines (single ring structure) and A and G are purines (which are larger, bulkier molecules, double ring structure). Rosalind…

Words 534 - Pages 3

Sickle Cell Anemia Research Paper

cuts the DNA strand into two smaller fragments. In sickle cell carriers, one DNA strand is cut, while the other is not. This results in three different strands. DNA has a negative charge because of the oxygen in the phosphate base, thus it will travel towards an object with a positive charge. Ethidium bromide, EtBr, attaches to DNA through intercalation. EtBr intercalated into DNA fluoresces and glows orange when exposed to a UV light. Once the gel was exposed to UV light, the DNA strands were easily…

Words 1101 - Pages 5

Student: Dna and Dna Replication Essay

how DNA is actually replicated, I remember learning about it briefly in high school, but I was never really interested. However, now that I actually understand all the processes leading up to DNA replication and genetics, it makes it much more interesting. Way back in 1953 Watson and Crick wrote two papers about how they thought DNA replication might work. They predicted that first hydrogen bonds connecting the two strands of the DNA molecule are broken. When this occurs, the two strands separate…

Words 507 - Pages 3

Essay on Lol No

In the next stage, elongation, an enzyme called DNA polymerase is important. The DNA polymerase attaches to each strand at the replication origins, reading the nucleotides and finding the complement base. Because the leading strand runs in the same direction that it was unzipped, the DNA polymerase moves with ease down the length of the strand. Because human DNA is so very long (with up to 80 million base pairs in a chromosome) it unzips at multiple places along its length so that the replication…

Words 337 - Pages 2

DNA Replication Essay

A- DNA replication DNA replication is a biological process by which a molecule of DNA is copied. This process starts at the origin of replication where the double helix of the parental DNA is being unwound by the helicase in two separated strands. Then, single-strand biding proteins bind on the unpaired strands keeping them from repairing. The topoisomerase helps relieve the strain by breaking and swiveling the DNA strands ahead of the replication fork. The primase synthesize a short stretch of…

Words 413 - Pages 2

DNA PROJECT Essay

DNA PROJECT By Julia BRown DNA STRUCTURE The DNA molecule is a long polymer / chain of repeating units. The units are called monomers nucleotides that make up DNA. In the nucleotides there’s phosphate, sugar and a base. There are 4 types of bases in DNA which are the thymine, adenine, cytosine, and guanine. DNA is genetic material that identical molecules could not carry different instructions across all organisms. The same 4 bases are found in the DNA of all organisms but the proportion differs from organism to organism…

Words 641 - Pages 3

Essay on Little House

1.DNA molecules are made of two polymers connected by the hydrogen atom bonds and coiled in the shape of a double helix. The 3 parts are the deoxyribose(sugar), Phospate group 5 carbon base 2.DNA molecules are made of two polymers connected by the hydrogen atom bonds and coiled in the shape of a double helix. 3.A purine is a nitrogenous base which has two carbon-nitrogen rings (Adenine and guanine) whilst pyramidine only has one carbon-nitrogen ring (Thymine and cytosine). 4.1. Components of…

Words 921 - Pages 4