Chapter 8

DNA Structure
and Function

© Cengage Learning 2016

8.1 A Hero Dog’s Golden Clones
• James Symington and his search dog Trakr
located the last living survivor of the 9/11 attack
on the World Trade Center
• Trakr later died of a degenerative neurological
disease, probably due to toxic smoke exposure at
Ground Zero
• Trakr’s DNA lives on in his clones – genetic
copies produced by inserting his DNA into
donor eggs

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The Cloning Controversy
• Few cloned mammal embryos result in a live
birth – many of the clones that survive have
serious health problems
– The problem: DNA in adult cells is controlled
differently than the DNA in embryonic cells
• Perfecting methods for cloning animals brings
us closer to the possibility of cloning humans,
both technically and ethically

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8.2 The Discovery of DNA’s Function
• 1869: Johannes Miescher found DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid) in nuclei, though its
function was unknown
• Early 1900s: Griffith transferred hereditary
material from dead cells to live cells
– Mice injected with live R cells lived
– Mice injected with live S cells died
– Mike injected with killed S cells lived
– Mice injected with killed S cells and live R cells
died; live S cells were found in their blood
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Griffith’s Experiments

A B C D

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Avery and McCarty Find the
Transforming Principle

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Confirmation of DNA’s Function

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Bacteriophages

DNA
inside
protein
coat

tail hollow
fiber sheath

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Virus particle coat S remains
35

proteins labeled outside cells

with 35S

DNA being
injected into
bacterium

Virus DNA
labeled with 32P
32
P remains
inside cells
Labeled DNA
being injected
into bacterium

Stepped Art
© Cengage Learning 2016 Figure 8-6 p137
The Hershey–Chase Experiments

35 S
remains
Virus particle outside cells
coat proteins

labeled with 35 S

DNA being
injected into
bacterium

Virus
DNA
labeled with 32 P 32 Premains
inside cells
Labeled DNA
being injected
into bacterium

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8.4 The Discovery of DNA’s Structure

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 Four Kinds of Nucleotides in DNA
ADENINE (A) THYMINE (T)
deoxyadenosine triphosphate deoxythymidine triphosphate

BASE
SUGA
R

GUANINE (G)
deoxyguanosine triphosphate CYTOSINE (C)
HC deoxycytidine triphosphate

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Chargaff’s Rules

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Franklin, Watson, and Crick

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Watson and Crick’s DNA Model

Insert image left column page 137

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 0.34 nanometer
between each
base pair

2-nanometer
diameter

3.4-nanometer
length of each full
twist of the double
helix

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8.4 Eukaryotic Chromosomes
• The DNA in a eukaryotic cell nucleus is
organized as one or more chromosomes that
differ in length and shape
• Chromosome
– A structure that consists of DNA and associated
proteins
– Carries part or all of a cell’s genetic information

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Chromosome Organization
• During most of the cell’s life, each chromosome
consists of one DNA strand
• When the cell prepares to divide, it duplicates all
of its chromosomes, so that both offspring
receive a full set
• Each duplicated chromosome
– Has two DNA strands (sister chromatids) attached to
one another at the centromere
– Consists of two long filaments bunched into a
characteristic X shape
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Chromosomes and Chromatids

DNA
inside
centromere
protein
coat
one chromatid

tail hollow
a chromosome
fiber asheath
chromosome
(unduplicated) (duplicated)

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Chromosome Structure
• Each filament consists of a coil of DNA
wrapped around “spools” of proteins called
histones
• Each DNA-histone spools is a nucleosome, the
smallest unit of chromosomal organization in
eukaryotes
• The DNA molecule consists of two strands
twisted into a double helix

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Chromosome Structure – Illustrated

DNA
inside
protein
coat

Two strands of DNA twist into a double helix.

At regular intervals, the DNA (blue) wraps
around a core of histone proteins (purple).
The DNA and proteins associated with it
twist tightly into a fiber.
The fiber coils and then coils again to
form a hollow cylinder.
At its most condensed, a duplicated
chromosome has an X shape.
The DNA in the nucleus of a
eukaryotic cell
is typically divided into a number of
chromosomes.
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Chromosome Packing

DNA
inside
protein
coat

Andrew Syred/Science Source.

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Chromosome Number
• The total number of chromosomes in a
eukaryotic cell (chromosome number) is
characteristic of the species
• Human body cells have:
– Forty-six chromosomes
– Two of each type of chromosome – so their
chromosome number is diploid (2n)
• A karyotype shows how many chromosomes are
in an individual cell, and reveals major structural
abnormalities
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Karyotypes

DNA
inside
protein
coat

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Autosomes and Sex Chromosomes
• In a diploid organism, one chromosome in a pair
is inherited from the mother and one from the
father
– All except one pair of chromosomes are autosomes –
chromosomes with the same length, shape, and
centromere location
– Pairs of sex chromosomes differ between females
and males – human females have two X
chromosomes (XX); human males have one X and
one Y chromosome (XY)

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8.5 DNA Replication

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Replication of the DNA Sequence
• A cell’s genetic information consists of the order
of nucleotide bases (the DNA sequence) of its
chromosomes
• Descendant cells must get an exact copy of that
information
• Each chromosome is copied entirely – the two
chromosomes that result are duplicates of the
parent molecule

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Enzymes of DNA Replication

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Primers for DNA Polymerase
• Several types of DNA polymerases exist
• Each requires a primer to initiate DNA synthesis
• A primer is a short, single strand of DNA or RNA
that is complementary to a targeted DNA sequence

Insert image middle right column, page 140

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Semiconservative DNA Replication

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1 As replication begins, many initiator proteins attach to the DNA at certain
sites in the chromosome. Eukaryotic chromosomes have many of these initiator proteins
origins of replication; DNA replication proceeds more or less simultaneously
at all of them.
Topoisomerase

2 Enzymes recruited by the initiator proteins begin to unwind the two strands
of DNA from one another.
(untwists the double helix)

Helicase
(breaks hydro gen
3 Primers base-paired with the exposed single DNA strands serve as initiation
sites for DNA synthesis. bonds between bases)

4 Starting at primers, DNA polymerases (green boxes) assemble new strands

of DNA from nucleotides, using the parent strands as templates.
primer

DNA ligase seals any gaps that remain between bases of the “new” DNA, so DNA polymerase

5 a continuous strand forms.

nucleotide
Each parental DNA strand (blue) serves as a template for assembly of a new

6 strand of DNA (magenta). Both strands of the double helix serve as

templates, so two double- stranded DNA molecules result. One strand of
DNA ligase
each is parental (old), and the other is new, so DNA replication is said to be
semiconservative.

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Discontinuous Replication
• DNA polymerases attach a free nucleotide only
to the 3′ end of a DNA strand
• Only one of the two new strands of DNA can be
synthesized continuously during DNA
replication
• Synthesis of the other strand occurs in segments,
in the direction opposite that of unwinding
• DNA ligase joins segments into a continuous
strand of DNA

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Discontinuous Replication
unwinding

A During DNA
synthesis, only one
of the two new
strands can be
assembled in a
single piece. The
other strand forms
in short segments,
DNA which are called
Okazaki fragments
inside after the two
scientists who
protein discovered them.
DNA ligase joins
coat Okazaki fragments
where they meet.

B DNA synthesis
proceeds only in the 5′ to
3′ direction because DNA
polymerase catalyzes only
one reaction: the formation
of a bond between the 3′
carbon on the end of a
DNA strand and the
phosphate on a
nucleotide’s 5′ carbon.

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8.6 Mutations: Cause and Effect
• DNA polymerases proofread DNA sequences
during DNA replication and repair damaged
DNA
• When proofreading and repair mechanisms fail,
an error becomes a mutation – a permanent
change in the DNA sequence

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Electromagnetic Agents of DNA
Damage
• Ionizing radiation (gamma rays, X-rays, most
UV light)
– Knocks electrons out of atoms
– Breaks chromosomes into pieces that may get lost
– Creates free radicals in tissues
• UV light (320-400 nm)
– Forms pyrimidine dimers that kink DNA strands
– Causes skin cancer

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Chemical Agents of DNA Damage
• At least fifty-five carcinogenic (cancer-causing)
chemicals in tobacco smoke transfer small
hydrocarbon groups to the nucleotide bases in
DNA
• Many environmental pollutants are converted by
the body to other compounds that bind
irreversibly to DNA, causing replication errors
that lead to mutation

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Rosalind Franklin, X-Rays, and Cancer

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8.7 Cloning Adult Animals
• Clones
– Exact copies of a molecule, cell, or individual
– Occur in nature by asexual reproduction or embryo
splitting (identical twins)
• As cells develop, they become differentiated
– Different in form and function
– Usually a one-way process in animal cells
• Reproductive cloning technologies produce an
exact copy (clone) of an individual

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Cloning in the Laboratory
• Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)
– Nuclear DNA of an adult is transferred to an
enucleated egg
– Egg cytoplasm reprograms differentiated (adult)
DNA to act like undifferentiated (egg) DNA
– The hybrid cell develops into an embryo that is
genetically identical to the donor individual

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Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT)

A A cow’s egg is held in D The micropipette

place by suction through a enters the egg and delivers
hollow glass tube called a the skin cell to a region
micropipette. DNA is between the cytoplasm and
identified by a purple stain. the plasma membrane.

E After the pipette is

withdrawn, the donor’s skin
B Another micropipette
cell is visible next to the
punctures the egg and sucks
cytoplasm of the egg. The
out the DNA. All that remains
transfer is now complete.
inside the egg’s plasma
membrane is cytoplasm.

F An electric current causes

C A new micropipette pre- the foreign cell to fuse with and
pares to enter the egg at the deposit its nucleus into the
puncture site. The pipette cytoplasm of the egg. The egg
contains a cell grown from the begins to divide, and an embryo
skin of a donor animal. forms.

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Therapeutic Cloning

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Points to Ponder
• One of the problems consistently encountered
with cloned organisms is their rapidly declining
health. Why do you think this is happening?
• What are some reasons DNA is double-stranded
instead of single-stranded?
• What are some advantages of semiconservative
replication?

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