9797238 - THE CELL: MOLECULES AND PROCESSES
Modulo Molecular biology I

By the end of the course, students are expected to:

·       have the basis for the understanding of the physical, chemical and biological contexts in which molecules, reactions and metabolic pathways are framed

·       highlight the relationships between structure and function of the main classes of macromolecules 

·       understanding the regulation of molecular processes at cellular level. 

·       stimulate the interest of the student, and introducing the experimental methods.

·       THE NUCLEIC ACIDS: PRIMARY STRUCTURE. 

·       DNA as the ideal molecule for the perpetuation of genetic information - Changes in DNA sequence can have consequences: mutations. 

·       THE EUKARYOTIC AND PROKARYOTIC GENOMES 

·       INTERRUPTED GENES 

·       NUCLEIC ACIDS: SECONDARY STRUCTURE 

·       Denaturation of DNA. Hybridisation and annealing - Secondary structure of ssNA - hairpins - Alternative DNA conformations - Interaction with proteins - protein-DNA recognition language - protein DNA-binding domains - Supercoiling or twisting/relaxation of DNA -Topoisomerases

·       THE RNA MOLECULES: Central dogma of biology and its modifications - general concepts: gene expression; relationships between gene, mRNA, proteins 

·       REPLICATION: an event related to cell duplication - Replicon - origin - replication fork - DNApolymerases - Primasome and Replisome - Termination - Termination of linear replicons and their initiation - Telomeres and telomerase - Regulation of replication 

·       REPAIR, RECOMBINATION AND REARRANGEMENT IN DNA Repair systems

·       RECOMBINATION - homologous recombination - site-specific recombination

·       TRANSPOSONS: their action on evolution - transposons IS and Tn - Mechanisms of transposition 

·       RETROSEQUENCES - Retrotransposons - Retroviruses - reverse transcriptase - unprocessed pseudogenes, Alu seq. and repeated sequences in genomes

·       PROTEIN SYNTHESIS - Ribosomes - Stages of protein synthesis: initiation / elongation / termination - differences between Bacteria and Eukaryotes - inhibitors of protein synthesis

·       GENETIC CODE - how many tRNAs exist? - tRNA-aminoacyl synthetase 

·       TRANSCRIPTION - mechanism and general concepts - Components of the transcriptional unit: promoter-site initiator-transcriber-terminator - Importance of transcription in the regulation of gene expression - General steps of transcription

·       TRANSCRIPTION IN PROKARYOTS: RNApolymerases - Promoter and recognition modes – Regulatory genes and structural genes - Types of Operons and their regulation

·       TRANSCRIPTION IN EUKARyOTS: RNA polymerase of three types - Transcription factors: General factors, Upstream factors or enhancers, Inducible factors (response elements) - Promoters – Enhancer, Silencer, Mediator.

·       RNA PROCESSING - Eukaryotic mRNA maturation – 5’cap - polyA tail - base modifications in tRNAs - Alternative splicing - RNA editing

·       TRANSCRIPTION REGULATION IN EUKARYOTS - TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS - the response element - Other types of transcriptional regulation: - interaction with chromatin - long-distance regulation: hypersensitive sites, isolators, LCR (locus control region), - Methylation: CpG islands

·       J. Zlatanova & K.E. vanHolde Molecular Biology. Structure and dynamics of Genomes and Proteomes, 1st edition, 2016, Garland Sciences, ISBN: 9780815345046

·       James D. Watson et al, Molecular Biology of the Gene, 7th edition, 2014, Pearson, ISBN: 9780321762436.

The assessment of acquired knowledge is conducted by an oral examination. The grade is expressed on a scale of thirty, up to a maximum of 30/30 cum laude (with honors). The final grade is determined by the weighted average of the scores obtained in the course subjects.

The oral examination consists of an interview during which questions will cover at least three different topics from the course curriculum. The assessments aim to evaluate: i) the level of knowledge in the disciplines; ii) the ability to apply this knowledge to solve specific problems related to the disciplines (autonomous problem-solving); iii) clarity of expression; iv) proficiency in medical-scientific language. The assessment of learning can also be conducted remotely if the conditions necessitate it.

For the assignment of the final grade, the following parameters will be considered:

·       Score 29-30 with honors: The student demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of the topics, promptly and correctly integrates and critically analyzes presented situations, independently solving even highly complex problems. They possess excellent communication skills and command medical-scientific language proficiently.

·       Score 26-28: The student has a good understanding of the topics, is able to integrate and critically and logically analyze presented situations, can fairly independently solve complex problems, and presents topics clearly using appropriate medical-scientific language.

·       Score 22-25: The student has a fair understanding of the topics, although it may be limited to the main areas. They can integrate and critically analyze presented situations, although not always in a linear fashion, and present topics fairly clearly with moderate language proficiency.

·       Score 18-21: The student has minimal knowledge of the topics, possesses modest ability to integrate and critically analyze presented situations, and presents topics   sufficiently clearly, although their language proficiency may be underdeveloped.

·       Exam not passed: The student lacks the minimum required knowledge of the core content of the course. Their ability to use specific language is minimal or nonexistent, and they are unable to independently apply acquired knowledge.

·       The alternative DNA conformations

·       Operon lac regulation

·       Mechanism of DNA modifying enzymes

·       Genetic code degeneracy