Showing posts with label questionnaire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questionnaire. Show all posts

Friday, November 6, 2009

Questionnaire #2

Several GRE-ST questions linked together.
Questions 118-121 refer to the following cellular processes.
(A) Phagocytosis
(B) Exocytosis
(C) Endocytosis
(D) Transcytosis
(E) Apoptosis

118. Movement of plasma membrane receptors from the basolateral surface to the apical surface of polarized epithelial cells
119. Up-regulation of glucose transporters at the plasma membrane
120. Selective retrieval of cell-surface proteins for recycling or degradation
121. Neurotransmitter release

Questions 124-126 refer to the following protein-modifying reagents.
(A) Chymotrypsin
(B) Cyanogen bromide
(C) Iodoacetamide
(D) Phenylglyoxal
(E) Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate

124. Forms a Schiff-base linkage with the epsilon-amino group of lysine residues
125. Specifically cleaves polypeptides on the carboxyl side of methionine residues
126. Generally used as a sulfhydryl-modifying reagent

Questions 127-129 refer to the following cell structures.
(A) Thylakoid membrane
(B) Nuclear lamina
(C) Eubacterial cell wall
(D) Plant cell wall
(E) Endoplasmic reticulum

127. Its assembly is inhibited by penicillin.
128. It is formed from polymeric fibrils composed of cellulose cross-linked by pectin and hemicellulose.
129. It is the site of dolichol phosphate function.
Show answers
It is important here to notice that one answer can be right for several questions.
Now lets try to describe each process announced. So phagocytosis is process of "eating" external organells by the cell. It is quite close to endocytosis, when – in contrast – molecules are being absorbed. Exocytosis is opposite process – secretion of molecules into external space. It can be hormones, antibodies and so on. Transcytosis is interesting process of transporting molecules from apical (absorbing) space of polarized cells to basolateral space, which happens, for example, when antibodies are transported through baby rat's gut. Main idea is that molecules are absorbed into internal vesicles (as during endocytosis) and then after several steps containers' content is exposed as during exocytosis. No target molecules are left in cell's plasma. Interesting is that cell can regulate exposure of some proteins in the cell membrane using transcytosis. During latent phase (e.g. while there is no great need in glucose) transporters are stored incorporated in vesicles inside the cell. But in case of emergency (or if cell is stimulated, by insulin in our case) that vesicles fuse into plasma membrane and transporters expose into extracellular space and begin to work. Last one is apoptosis which is self-destroying of the cell. That happens if crucial malfunction appear or cell's mission was fulfilled. So the answer are like that. I suppose, answer D is suitable for both two first questions.
118 D. 119 D. 120 C. 121 B.

Chymotripsin is protein, enzyme actually, of so-called class of proteases. It cleaves specific polypeptide regions near serine, so it is called serine protease.
Cyanogen bromide is simple small molecule CNBr and, as written in wikipedia, is used to immobilize proteins by gluing them to agarose gel during chromatography. But more important is that CNBr cleaves polypeptide chains at C-terminus of methionine.
Iodoacetamide is substance that can bind covalently with cysteine to prevent formation of disulfide bonds. So it can be called sulfhydryl modifying reagent.
Phenylglyoxal modifies arginine.
Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (or PLP) is active form of vitamin B6. As written in wikipedia (again, yeah) it forms Schiff-base linkage the ε-amino group of a specific lysine group of the aminotransferase enzyme.
124 E. 125 B. 126 C.

This questions uncovers very specific properties of very important and well-known objects. So I will not discuss all of them, but just give right answers and some interesting details if I find any.
All options are common in one: they are membranes or structures, that acts like membranes – support shape (cell walls and nuclear lamina) and protect internal content. But they have different structure, functions and behavior.
127 C. Notice that eubacteria is synonym for bacteria.
128 D. 129 E. Dolichol phosphate acts in formation of membrane-associated glycoproteins, so I suppose its site is on the ER membrane.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Questionnaire #1

That is first series of short (with short description as well as answer) questions from GRE Subject Test.
#5
Most of the dry mass in the trunk of a tree was originally derived from
(A) the soil
(B) light energy
(C) amino acids
(D) CO2
(E) glucose
Show answer
As soon as dry mass of the trunk of a tree consists mainly of oligosaccharides its source should contain carbon and hydrogen. Soil is too much common answer for me. Light energy can't be right answer because energy is not converted into matter easily. Amino acids is strange idea also. So let's check two options: CO2 and glucose. As this question – obviously – touches photosynthesize process, which yields glucose and other carbohydrates, I pick up CO2 as an answer.

#13
Which of the following types of molecules is always found in virions?
(A) Lipid
(B) Protein
(C) Carbohydrate
(D) DNA
(E) RNA
Show answer
First, we should define what virion is. Surprisingly, it is just one instance of object virus. So you talk about virus (e.g. fag T4) properties, but when you meet one in the shop, it is virion.
What do we know about virions? They are simple systems which are not really cells because of lack of membrane and other important compartments as well as functions and facilitates. They have got capsid – hard-breaking protein-lipid armor around internal stuff. Inside they have some proteins and nucleic acid: either DNA or RNA, either single- or double-strained molecules. So the answer is proteins as molecules, that are found in all viruses and thus virions.

#31
The difference between the molecular weight of sucrose and that of the sum of the molecular weights of its components (glucose and fructose) is
(A) 0
(B) 1
(C) 16
(D) 18
(E) 180
Show answer
If you remember scheme structure of sucrose as O_O (:-) you get the idea of question. The reaction of such polymerization looks like that:
Glu-OH + OH-Fru = Glu-O-Fru + HOH
Thus, difference is in one water molecule which is 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen. The answer is D: 18 = 2*1 + 16.

#34
An alpha-helical conformation of a globular protein in solution is best determined by which of the following?
(A) Ultraviolet-visible absorbance spectroscopy
(B) Fluorescence spectroscopy
(C) Electron microscopy
(D) Analytical ultracentrifugation
(E) Circular dichroism
Show answer
I really looooove fluorescence. So I hope it is the right answer, but lets be patient.
Electron microscopy is not good idea, because it can't show us structure of the protein as x-ray crystallography make it possible.
Ultracentrifugation, I suppose, will not help us because it will just sediment peptides and nothing more.
Circular dichroism is damn strange stuff I don't know much about. But google fetched me nice page about circular dichroism. I got the idea of that method: difference in absorbances of left- and right-polarized light is higher if peptide is structured. It is rather similar to fluorescence anisotropy. High anisotropy shows that fluorophore is fixed in space (and time :-) It can also predict stable structures as alpha-helices or beta-layers.