Artificial and Natural RNA Activities

Biotechnology Chapter 5 Day 3 Questions

1. How are snRNAs (snurps) involved in splicing? How does this differ from group II intron splicing?  What’s a lariat?  What’s a lariat structure?

1. Data from what method was used to identify many new alternative splice sites? How can an antisense therapeutic affect alternative splicing?
2. Riboswitches are mostly found in bacteria. Compare the mechanisms of transcription attenuation and translation inhibition.
3. Why can hairpin ribozymes, but not antisense oligonucleotides, catalyze many reactions?
4. Describe the selection process and the evolution method involved in SELEX.
5. What are aptamers? How are these similar to riboswitches?
6. What are ribozyme effector molecules and aptamer “antidotes”?
7. What does the photolyase DNAzyme “fix”? Why would you want to fix this?  How does this relate to DNA gels?