CHEM 446 - Nucleic Acid Chemistry

Units: 3
Nucleic acid structure, modification and processing. Emphasis on methods for chemical characterization of DNA and RNA, genome structure and organization, regulation of the transcriptome, recombinant DNA techniques and use of DNA databases.

Co-requisites: CHEM 442.
Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Recall the structures of nucleotides and nucleic acids and relate the key features stabilizing the B-DNA double helix;
List the types of RNA found in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and write a chemical mechanism for RNA splicing;
Distinguish mechanisms for expressing and regulating the transcriptome in prokaryotes and eukaryotes;
Compare activities of enzymes used to manipulate DNA and RNA in vitro and list several applications for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology;
Outline the basics of DNA cloning and classify different vector types and their applications;
Summarize a DNA sequencing method and contrast techniques for analyzing unassigned DNA sequence information;
Explain the organization of eukaryotic nuclear genomes in terms of chromatin structure, gene organization, repetitive sequences and other non-coding sequences;
Navigate the web-based international DNA databases and use the BLAST program to search for homologues of specific cDNAs.