1. Bio 344 Molecular Biology Old web site: www.sbs.utexas.edu/herrin/ bio344/

2. Suggestions for success 1.Read the book as much as you can. 2.Print out the slides (1-2/page) and bring them to lecture. 3.Take additional notes on the slides in lecture (or tape the lecture). 4.Go to Discussion Sections to ask questions, and take quizzes to test your understanding and knowledge. 5.Don’t wait until the day before the exam to cram.

3. Molecular Biology - what’s in a name? “Molecular Biology” was born in the middle part of the last century as a new discipline focused on understanding the molecular basis of the most fundamental of life processes – those involving the reproduction and expression of genetic information.

4. Molecular Biology Timeline DNA discovered by F. Meischer1869 1910Genes on chromosomes; T.H. Morgan 1941One gene-one enzyme, Beadle & Tatum 1944DNA is genetic material; Avery, Mcleod& McCarty 1953 Structure of DNA; Watson, Crick, Franklin, Wilkins 1961Discovery of mRNA; Brenner, Jacob & Meselson 1966Finished unraveling the code; Nirenberg & Khorana 1972 Recombinant DNA made in vitro; P. Berg 1973 DNA cloned on a plasmid; H. Boyer & S. Cohen Discovery of reverse transcriptase; H. Temin1973 1977Rapid DNA sequencing; F. Sanger & W. Gilbert 1977Discovery of split genes; Sharp, Roberts et al. 1982 Discovery of ribozymes; T. Cech & S. Altman 2001 1986Creation of PCR; K. Mullis et al. Human Genome Project; Venter, Collins and many others

5. The modern framework of Molecular Biology DNA pre RNA RNA Protein DNA Replication & Repair Transcription Processing Translation folding assembly processing RNAs and proteins mediate these processes.

6. Molecular Evolution What was the first informational macromolecule? –Proteins ? –DNA ? –RNA ? –Macromolecule no longer used in modern cells? RNA is the only currently-used macromolecule that is both a carrier of genetic information and an enzyme.

7. The RNA World The “RNA world” hypothesis posits that there was a stage early in the early evolution of life that was dominated by RNA. Corollary: the functions of RNA in modern cells are only remnants of its previous roles.

8. Possible remnants of the RNA World 1.Self-splicing introns 2.Rnase P (ribozyme that cleaves tRNA precursors) 3.Self-cleaving viral RNAs 4.Peptidyl transferase in the ribosome 5.Nucleotides (ribo) involved in: –metabolism (e.g., ATP, UTP, NADH, NADPH) –signaling (cAMP, cGMP, GTP, ITP) –assembly of complexes (GTP and ATP) –Energy for motility, ion pumping, etc. (ATP, GTP)

9. Molecular Biology & the Origin of Life Can we reconstruct a living, reproducing cell from molecules using the tools & concepts of molecular biology?