84898 - General and Molecular Biochemistry

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to acknowledge the students on the basis of general biochemistry and molecular biology. In particular to know the structure and the function of the biological molecules, the significance and the molecular mechanisms of the principal metabolic paths.

Course contents

Biochemistry- (module 1) teacher Prof. Paolo Neyroz
1) Water as general solvent of the biological molecules: Structure and chemical characteristics
2) Proteines 1: general structure of aminoacids (a.a.), the properties of the different lateral chains of the essential 20 a.a., the peptidic bond and the structure levels of the proteins structure.
3) Proteins 2: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure. The Anfinsen's experiment.
4) Proteine 3: structural features of the alfa-keratine, silk fibroin and triple elix of collagen.
5) Haemoglobin eand Mioglobin: Structure and function, cooperative effect, allosteric regulators (pH, CO2, BPG), fetal haemoglobin and sikle cell anemia.
6) Enzymology: definition of catalisis, chemical mechanisms, thermodynamics and kinetics, eqz. of Micaelis-Menten, velocity vs. [S] plot, Lineweaver-Burk's plot, enzyme's inhibition, conserved catalytic mechanisms, catalytic triads of proteases.
7) Methabolism: Definition and introduction of the methabolic processes (cathabolism and anabolism), ATP as molecule to conserve chemical energy.
8) Cathabolism organization
9) Glycolisis
10) Mechanism to use different sugars (galactose, fructose and mannose)
11) The pentose phosphare path
12) Glycogenolysis e glycogenosinthesis
13) Glyconeogenesis
14) The citric acid cycle
15) The electrons transport chain and ossidative phosphorylation.
16) The fatty acids degradation: The beta-ossidation.
17) The fatty acids sinthesis
18) The cholesterol sinthesis
19) The proteins' amino group degradation: the urea cycle.

20) Membranes structure

21) Signal trasduction

Biochemistry - (module 2), teacher Prof. Diana Fiorentini

Emostasis: Platlets and clotting factors, the role of vitamine K.

Carbohydrats : monosaccarides, glucose and other sugars, O-glycosidic bond, chemical structures, homopolisaccarides: amyde, glycogeb and cellulose.

Nucleotides: general structure, N-glycosidic bond, nucleosides – nucleotides – ATP structure – ATP, ADP and Pi resonance – structure and function of AMPc e GMPc.

General structure of nucleic acids: 5'-3' phosphodiester bond. Hydrolisis of RNA. Enzymatic hydrolisis of nucleic acids. Restriction enzymes.

DNA structure : The Watson and Crick model. DNA denaturation.

Supercoiled DNA in E.Coli : negative and positive superhelix and their role. Topoisomerases.

Supercoiled DNA in eucariotes : histons – polinucleosomes - cromatine structure. Histons' acetilation/deacetilation.

Central Dogma.

DNA replication in E.Coli .

Eucariotic DNA damnages.

RNA structure : mRNA, tRNA and rRNA.

Trascription in E. Coli.

RNA maturation: introns and exons – splicing.

Transcription control: sigma factor. Lac-operon. Eucariotes transcription factors and regulation.

Amminoacil-RNAt synthesis: amminoacil-tRNA-sintase's catalytic mechanism.

Genetic code.

Codon-anticodon pairing: third base degeneration: the 61 codons tRNA recognition. AUG and formyl-metionine AUG vs. internal metionine.

Translation : Shine-Dalgarno sequence - Initiation, Elongation, Termination. Post-translational modification of proteins.

DNA cloning: restriction enzymes and DNA fragmentation, cloning vectors, recombinant DNA – trasfection – genomic libraries and cDNA he e di cDNA. Biotechnology applications.

Readings/Bibliography

Testi/Bibliografia

J. Berg, J.L. Tymoczko, L. Stryer “Biochimica” settima edizione, Zanichelli, 2012
D.L. Nelson, M.M. Cox “I principi di Biochimica di Lehninger” sesta edizione, Zanichelli, 2014
D. Voet, J.G. Voet, C. W. Pratt “Fondamenti di Biochimica” terza edizione, Zanichelli 2013
T.M. Devlin “Biochimica con aspetti clinico-farmaceutici” , EdiSES, 2013

Teaching methods

Oral presentation of the program by Power Point presentations.

Assessment methods

Written test for Module 2 and oral test for Module 1.

Teaching tools

lectures by power point presentations present in AMS Campus web site

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Neyroz

See the website of Diana Fiorentini