Draw out the diagram illustrating the Central Dogma.
Label the arrows that show the direction of information flow.

Draw

The gross structural organization of a prokaryotic gene.

The gross structural organization of the Lac Operon.
Identify the protein coding regions, indicate their functional significance.
Blow up and label the organization of the transcription regulatory portion of the Lac Operon.
Indicate which proteins interact with which sequences and the functional consequences of those interactions.

Ditto for the Trp Operon
(you can disregard the structural portion of the operon - since we never did talk about it).
Focus on the regulatory region.

 

Outline the stages of the transcription process.
In point form describe the molecular interactions involved in each stage.

Which stage(s) of transcription are regulated in prokaryotes?

Distinguish between rho-dependant and rho-independant transcription termination mechanisms.

What is 'dyad' symmetry? How is it involved in the termination of transcription?

What is the subunit composition of RNA polymerase in E coli?
What does the 'sigma' subunit do?

 

Whats a cistron? How 'bout a polycistronic message?

How does a co-repressor differ from an inducer? How do both of them work?

What are the protein structural motifs commonly found in sequence specific DNA binding proteins?
How do these structures find their target binding sites?

Describe the primary mechanism of transcriptional regulation in prokaryotes.

Describe two secondary mechanisms regulating prokaryotic transcription.

Compare the 'ground state' transcriptional status of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes.

Because of their 'ground state', prokaryotes and eukaryotes regulate transcription differently. Explain.

Compare prokaryotic and eukaryotic promoters.

What are the components of the eukaryotic 'basal transcription complex'?

Transcription Activators bind to upstream activating sequences (UAS).
What other functions are associated with Activator proteins?

Enhancer elements are a type of distant UAS.
Enhancer elements are believed to act by interacting directly with their target promoter.
How is it that enhancers can act on target promoters located thousands of bp away?

Enhancer elements increase, and silencer elements decrease, the expression of their target genes.
Propose a mechanism by which these elements may regulate transcription elongation.