Genomic DNA from a mouse is isolated, fragmented, and de...

Question

Genomic DNA from a mouse is isolated, fragmented, and denatured into single strands. It is then mixed with mRNA isolated from the cytoplasm of mouse cells. The image represents an electron micrograph result showing the hybridization of single-stranded DNA and mRNA.

What term best identifies the nucleic acid region indicated by the 'c' pointer?

Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Let's look at our next question. You are studying the expression of a particular gene and have isolated both DNA and M R N from the same organism. You want to confirm that the M R N A corresponds to the gene of interest and you decide to perform a hybridization experiment using a labeled probe that is complementary to a segment of the gene. Which of the following statements is most likely true regarding the hybridization of the probe with DNA and M R N A choice A, the labeled probe will bind specifically to the DNA sequence but not to the M R N A sequence due to differences in nucleotide composition. Choice B, the labeled probe will bind specifically to the M R N A sequence but not to the DNA sequence. Due to differences in the nucleotide composition. Choice C, the labeled probe will bind specifically to both the DNA and M R N A sequences. And choice D, the labeled probe will not bind to either the DNA or M R N A sequence as the probe is not complementary to the target sequence. So let's just kind of think this through we have a probe that is complementary to a gene sequence. And by definition, that sequence will be part of an Exxon since it's a coding region of the DNA, and therefore, it will still be present in both the DNA molecule and the M R N A molecule. So we would expect the probe then to bind to both the DNA and the M R N A. Since we know that a region that codes for a gene would be the same in both. So that will be choice C since again, that strand will have to be complementary, it won't be affected by splicing or anything else that removes the non coding regions of the DNA molecule before it becomes M R N A. So it should be a region in common to both molecules. So which of the following statements is most likely true regarding the hybridization of the probe with DNA and M R N A choice C, the labeled probe will bind specifically to both the DNA and M R N A sequences as they both contain the complementary nucleotide sequence to the probe. See you in the next video.

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