Deck 16: Applications Of Molecular Genetics

Question 1

On which chromosome is the huntingtin gene located?

A) Chromosome 1
B) Chromosome 4
C) Chromosome 7
D) Chromosome 21
E) Chromosome 22

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following requirements must be fulfilled before a gene therapy procedure will be approved?
1)The gene must be cloned and well characterized
2)The risks of gene therapy to the patient must have been carefully evaluated and shown to be minimum
3)The disease must not be treatable by other strategies

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Answer 2

E

Question 3

The genetic cause of Huntington's disease can best be described as a/an:

A) Increased trinucleotide repeat in the huntingtin gene
B) Increased trinuclotide repeat in the fibrosin gene
C) Decreased trinucleotide repeat in the huntingtin gene
D) Decreased trinucleotide repeat in the fibrosin gene
E) None of these

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The practice of introducing functional gene copies into an individual with two nonfunctional copies is known as:

A) Gene cloning
B) Gene therapy
C) Gene diagnostics
D) Southern blotting
E) None of these

Question 5

Which of the following was critical in identifying the CF gene for cystic fibrosis?

A) Use of a sweat gland cDNA library
B) Unique structure of the CF gene product
C) Important clues from biochemical analysis
D) Characteristic symptoms of the disease
E) None of these

Question 6

Why was the use of the sweat gland cDNA library critical in identifying the CF gene?
1)The CF gene is only expressed in epithelial cells of the lungs,pancreas,salivary glands,sweat glands,intestine,and reproductive tract
2)The CF gene is not expressed in any other tissue than sweat glands
3)The CF gene is not expressed in sweat glands

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 7

The characterization of the huntingtin and CF genes has led to which of the following?

A) DNA tests for the mutations which cause the respective diseases
B) DNA tests for the protein that is formed in the respective diseases
C) Treatments for the respective diseases
D) Treatments for all neurological degenerative diseases
E) None of these

Question 8

On which chromosome is the CF gene located?

A) Chromosome 1
B) Chromosome 4
C) Chromosome 7
D) Chromosome 21
E) Chromosome 22

Question 9

When testing for the presence of the sickle cell anemia Hbb allele,a Southern blot exhibits two small bands for the Hbb? allele and one band for the Hbb allele.What do these results mean?

A) The subject is homozygous for the sickle cell allele
B) The subject is heterozygous
C) The subject is homozygous for the normal allele
D) The results are inconclusive and the test will need to be run again
E) Southern blots cannot test for the presence of the sickle cell allele

Question 10

The mutation that causes sickle cell anemia can be tested for by:
1)Testing for the presence or absence of a specific restriction enzyme cleavage site in DNA
2)Testing for the presence of a trinucleotide repeat in DNA
3)Testing for the absence of a trinucleotide repeat in DNA

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 11

Which of the following can be attributed to the presence of unstable trinucleotide repeats?

A) Huntington's disease
B) Fragile X syndrome
C) Mytonic Dystrophy
D) Huntington's Disease and Fragile X Syndrome
E) All of these

Question 12

The gene for which of the following diseases was identified by positional cloning?

A) Huntington's disease
B) Cystic fibrosis
C) Breast Cancer
D) Huntington's disease and Cystic fibrosis
E) All of these

Question 13

A gene that has been introduced into a cell or an organism is known as a:

A) Polygene
B) Cisgene
C) Transgene
D) Xenogene
E) Autogene

Question 14

Seventy percent of all Cystic Fibrosis cases are caused by which of the following mutations?

A) DF508 trinucleotide deletion
B) DF508 trinucleotide repeat
C) CAG trinucleotide repeat
D) CAG trinuclotide deletion
E) None of these

Question 15

Which of the following statements true regarding germ line cell gene therapy is false?
1)It is currently being practiced on humans.
2)There are no moral or ethical considerations with this type of gene therapy
3)It stops the diseased gene from being passed down to offspring

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 16

How many CAG nucleotide repeats are commonly found in patients with Huntington's disease?

A) 1-10
B) 11-34
C) 42-100
D) 200-500
E) 1000-2000

Question 17

Which of the following is true regarding somatic cell gene therapy?
1)The diseased gene will continue to be present in germ line cells
2)It will treat disease symptoms in an individual
3)It is less complex than organ transplantation

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 18

Which of the following techniques is used to test for unstable trinucleotide repeats associated with Huntington's disease?

A) Positional cloning
B) DNA sequencing
C) PCR
D) In situ hybridization
E) Northern blotting

Question 19

Which of the following is a common method of delivery used for somatic cell gene therapy?

A) Viral vectors
B) Enzyme linked immunoglobin vectors
C) Cosmid vectors
D) Viral vectors and Enzyme linked immunoglobulin vectors
E) All of these

Question 20

In Huntington's disease the age of onset is:

A) Proportionally correlated with the number of CAG repeats
B) Inversely correlated with the number of CAG repeats
C) Always at 30 years of age
D) Always between 30 and 40 years of age
E) None of these

Question 21

Why would it be extremely rare for two individuals to share the same genetic profile?
1)Many base-pair substitutions are silent
2)Many base-pair substitutions occur in non-coding regions of DNA
3)Duplications and deletions of DNA sequences and other genome rearrangements contribute to the evolutionary divergence of genomes

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D)1 and 3
E) All of these

Question 22

The first use of gene therapy occurred in 1990 on a patient with which of the following diseases?

A) Huntington's disease
B) Cystic fibrosis
C) ADA-SCID
D) AIDS
E) Systemic lupus

Question 23

When was DNA fingerprinting first used as a forensic application in a court of law?

A) 1987
B) 1988
C) 1989
D) 1990
E) 1991

Question 24

Which of the following statements regarding DNA fingerprinting is true

A) DNA fingerprinting has the drawback that it requires extremely large quantities of DNA for analysis.
B) Inbreeding within a population decreases the probability of finding identical fingerprints between individuals.
C) An advantage of the technique is that data obtained from one population can easily be extrapolated to another population.
D) DNA fingerprinting is applicable in all cases of questionable identity except in paternity cases.
E) A prerequisite of the technique is the availability of information about the frequency of the polymorphisms in the population.

Question 25

Why is it necessary to examine DNA from a child's mother in order to determine paternity?
1)Approximately half of the bands in the child's DNA print result from maternal DNA sequences,therefore it is necessary to account for the presence of these bands when comparing the DNA to the potential fathers
2)Approximately half of the bands in the child's DNA print result from maternal DNA sequences,and it is in the child's best interest to confirm maternity as well as paternity.
3)Approximately half of the bands in the child's DNA print result from maternal DNA sequences,and it is cheaper to determine maternity than it is paternity.

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 26

When confirming paternity it would be best to use:
1)Multiple numbers of probes so that the genome can be categorized more accurately
2)Multiple potential father's DNA samples so as to rule out infidelity
3)Unknown samples of DNA to prevent bias

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 27

Recorded patterns of DNA polymorphisms that can provide strong evidence of an individual's identity are known as:

A) DNA STRs
B) DNA fingerprints
C) RFLP fingerprints
D) Genetic identification
E) None of these

Question 28

How can bacterial produced eukaryotic proteins can be used?

A) Pharmaceuticals
B) Digestive aids for animals
C) Cleaning aids in detergents
D) All of these
E) None of these

Question 29

Which of the following human proteins has been produced in microorganisms?

A) Insulin
B) Dystrophin
C) Apo-dystrophin
D) COVERT protein
E) Huntingtin gene product

Question 30

Which of the following statements regarding paternity testing is correct?

A) Blood type data can be used to positively identify the father of a child
B) Blood type data has several advantages over DNA fingerprinting in paternity testing
C) For paternity testing, only DNA samples from the possible fathers and the child are required.
D) Approximately half of the bands in the child's DNA print match those of the father.
E) Increasing the number of hybridizing probes increases the ambiguity of the paternity test.

Question 31

Which of the following was the second pharmaceutical protein produced by bacteria approved for human use?

A) Insulin
B) hGH
C) Erythropoietin
D) Rennin
E) Interferon

Question 32

Somatic cell gene therapy requires a retroviral vector used.As a result,use of the therapy to treat _____ has led to leukemia.

A) Huntington's disease
B) Cystic Fibrosis
C) X-linked SCID
D) ADA-SCID
E) ALS

Question 33

Why might a patient with ADA-SCID be a good candidate for somatic cell gene therapy?
1)The ADA gene was one of the first human disease genes to be cloned and characterized.
2)White blood cells can easily be obtained from ADA - SCID patients and reintroduced after functional copies of the ADA gene are added
3)Even a small amount of functional ADA will restore partial immune function

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 34

Which of the following is a possible use for DNA fingerprinting?
1)Identifying the father of a child
2)Identifying the presence of a person at a scene of a crime
3)Identifying an unknown soldier

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 2
E) All of these

Question 35

An accurate estimate of the probability that two individuals will have matching DNA fingerprints would require reliable information about:
1)The frequency of polymorphisms in the population in question
2)The frequency of polymorphisms in all populations
3)The frequency of polymorphisms in a different population than the one in question

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 1 and 3
E) All of these

Question 36

Currently white blood cells have been used in the somatic cell gene therapy treatment for patients with ADA-SCID,but their short lifespan is prohibitive in the treatment plan.What other type of cell could be used,and is being tested,with better results?

A) Bone marrow stem cells
B) Red blood cells
C) Epithelial cells
D) T lymphocytes
E) B lymphocytes

Question 37

Which of the following is used to make cheese?

A) Insulin
B) hGH
C) Erythropoietin
D) Renning
E) Interferon

Question 38

Which of the following was the first pharmaceutical protein produced by bacteria approved for human use?

A) Insulin
B) hGH
C) Erythropoietin
D) Rennin
E) Interferon

Question 39

Presently,somatic cell gene therapy for ADA-SCID presents challenges.What are those challenges?

A) The therapy is too expensive
B) The therapy is transient an the gene promoters are silenced by the host quickly
C) The functional gene copy is lost during introduction
D) The lifespan of red blood cells is short
E) None of these

Question 40

Which of the following types of fragments are commonly used to create DNA fingerprints?

A) VNTRs
B) STRs
C) ESTs
D) VNTRs and STRs
E) All of these

Question 41

Totipotency refers to:

A) The ability of a mammalian cell to develop into a differentiated cell.
B) The ability of a plant cell to accept foreign DNA.
C) The ability of a bacterial cell to express foreign DNA.
D) The ability of a plant or animal cell to produce all of the differentiated cells of the mature plant.
E) The ability of a mammalian cell to express all of the genes encoded by the genome.

Question 42

What types of viral vectors are commonly used to conduct somatic cell gene therapy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Question 43

What is the molecular basis for Huntington's Disease? Describe a simple molecular technique that is often used to test for this defect.

Question 44

How does the trinucleotide repeat in the huntingtin gene cause the clinical manifestations of Huntington's Disease?

Question 45

How does the CF gene product cause clinical manifestations of the disease Cystic Fibrosis?

Question 46

How do antisense mRNA molecules work?

A) Annealing to DNA to prevent replication
B) Annealing to DNA to prevent transcription
C) Being translated into non-functional protein molecules
D) Being translated into functional protein molecules that interact with normal protein molecules
E) Annealing to sense mRNA to prevent translation.

Question 47

How can the DNA test for Huntington's disease potentially diminish human suffering because of this disease?

Question 48

How is hGH produced for pharmaceutical use by using E.coli as a producer?

Question 49

Which statement is false concerning Agrobacterium tumefaciens:

A) It causes the crown gall disease in plants.
B) It carries the Ti plasmid which induces tumors in plants.
C) The vir region of the Ti plasmid integrates into the plant genome
D) The T-DNA segment of the Ti plasmid encodes enzymes for phytohormone synthesis.
E) It is an important vector for making transgenic plants.

Question 50

Which of the following is incorrect concerning RNAi?

A) Double-strand RNA is injected into a cell
B) A vector can be introduced to produce a double-stranded RNA hairpin
C) Fragments of the RNA anneal with a promoter and silence gene transcription
D) Fragments of the RNA anneal with the target mRNA.
E) The RiSC system degrades the target mRNA and the annealed RNA fragment.

Question 51

The most commonly used method for making transgenic plants is:

A) Electroporation
B) Microprojectile bombardment
C) A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation
D) Retrovirus-mediated genetic transfer.
E) Transposon-mediated genetic transfer