1,708 Answered Questions for the topic biochemistry

07/05/19

What biological processes cause leaves to change colours in Autumn?
I am curious to learn what are the biological mechanisms that cause leaves of deciduous plants to change colour? What happens to the chlorophyll?What environmental phenomena (temperature/air... more
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07/03/19

Why can't you just take a vitamin? Why you need a healthy diet on top of that?
From what I understand, your body needs certain amounts of vitamins and minerals to maintain health. Why can't we just take enough pills to obtain these vitamins and minerals?
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Biochemistry Literature Cell Biology

07/03/19

Is there a difference in cytoplasmic pH between prokaryotes and eukaryotes?
The cytosolic pH in human cells is [around 7.4, but fluctuates as the cell is replicating](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2114443/). Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are vastly different in... more
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Biochemistry Metabolism Glucose

07/03/19

Why is GTP, not ATP, produced in Gluconeogenesis & TCA Cycle?
In both gluconeogenesis and the TCA cycle, there is a point in each that GTP is produced instead of the usual ATP. My question is why GTP and not ATP for these 2 specific steps?
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Biochemistry

07/02/19

What would happen if Carbon-14 was in a glucose molecule and decayed into Nitrogen?
This interested me because of Melvin Calvin's experiment with photosynthesis where he used radioactive Carbon-14. If a plant used it as a reactant to make glucose, and that Carbon-14 decayed into... more
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Biochemistry Cell Biology

07/02/19

When collecting cell lysates for a Western blot, how do I induce di-sulfide bonds?
I would like to conduct a simple dimerization experiment for some protein I'm collecting from a cultured cells. My thought is, that if I'm running a non-reducing, denaturing PAGE gel, then removing... more
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Biochemistry Enzymes

07/02/19

How can facultative anaerobes exist without catalase?
>Catalase-negative bacteria may be anaerobes, or they may be **facultative anaerobes** that only ferment and do not respire using oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor<br />A facultative... more
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Biochemistry Rna Molecular Biology

07/02/19

What stops messenger RNA from binding to itself?
Since mRNA is single-stranded, and (mostly) floats freely within the cytosol, what stops it from folding onto itself (like DNA) and preventing transcription?
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Biochemistry Amino Acids Proteins

07/02/19

Why is glycine considered a nonpolar amino acid but a polar molecule?
Glycine has a dipole moment, so why is it considered a nonpolar amino acid when discussing its occurrence in proteins?Also, is the backbone of a protein nonpolar?
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07/01/19

What exactly happens if during translation, an amino acid is not present?
Lets say that the cell wants to make a particular protein. Transcription of the appropriate gene is done and the mRNA is made. mRNA attaches to the ribosome and the translation is initiated in a... more
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07/01/19

Why does high pH result in the denaturation of DNA?
In the Southern blot method, for example, a solution of NaOH is used to denature the DNA in the sample. I find this counterintuitive since I expected that $\ ext{Na}^+$ cations would neutralize... more
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06/30/19

Why doesn't surgical steel cause inflammation?
It seems some very specific alloys like implant surgical steel and titanium don't cause inflammation in the human body, but when I asked my doctor about it, they simply said "it just has some... more
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06/28/19

why is AUG the initiation codon?
Is there any reason why AUG is the initiation codon ?Why is there a need for an initiation codon ? Can't translation start with different codons?
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06/27/19

Is it possible to synthesize chiral version of an organism (incompatible with our pathogens)?
In theory, it should be possible to synthesize chiral (mirror image) version of some organism: with all molecules replaced with their enantiomers, e.g. L-sugars in place of our D-sugars.Direct... more
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Biochemistry Carbon Dioxide Blood Ph

06/27/19

The Bohr Shift Changes the Affinity of Hemoglobin for Oxygen
What is the Bohr Shift and why is it significant in restoring pH levels in the blood to normal?
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06/26/19

What are the roles of guanidine-HCl and ethanol in binding of DNA to silica?
I'm trying to understand how exactly the binding to silica gel (in kits) step works and I cannot find any papers which provide an explanation of the physics or chemistry; especially on the way that... more
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Biochemistry Nutrition

06/25/19

Is cyanocobalamin toxic?
I see that cyanocobalamin is not naturally occurring, and is synthesized in vivo to methylcobalamin. As part of the synthetic pathway, cyanide is broken off. All opinions I can find are that this... more
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06/25/19

How does CO₂ concentration affect photosynthesis?
I have heard the theory that with the increase of CO<sub>2</sub> in the air, the speed of the photosynthesis would increase, thereby limiting the increase of CO<sub>2</sub>... more
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06/25/19

Is it known how the first viruses formed?
[The oldest known virus](http://www.livescience.com/16015-oldest-viruses-insects.html) is known to have infected prehistoric insects 300 million years ago. A virus is basically a parasitic strand... more
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Biochemistry Breathing Respiration

06/24/19

What are the sources of molecular hydrogen in human breath?
In the BBC News article [CES 2019: Tech preview of the expo's hottest new gadgets](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46715334) there is a new product that one can use to measure the hydrogen in... more
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Biochemistry Enzymes

06/24/19

Why is it often the case that an enzyme is favorable only towards one direction of a reaction and not both directions?
In class when we're studying enzymes like amylase or protease it only works well when you're using it to break down compounds like polysaccharides. I'm just curious but why is it not possible for... more
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06/24/19

Photosynthesis: What Powers the Splitting of Water?
The splitting of water is an endergonic (non-spontaneous) reaction, and thus would require energy (chemical work to be done) in order to happen.In Photosystem II, an enzyme catalyzes this... more
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Biochemistry Enzymes

06/24/19

Is there an enzyme for the transformation of the hydroxyl group?
I would like to know, is there any enzyme which does the transformation of hydroxyl group to any other functional group using the enzyme. The substrate is aromatic hydroxyl group. Product should... more
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Biochemistry

06/24/19

In biosynthesis of cysteine and methionine, where does the sulfur come from?
Methionine and Cysteine are the two amino acids containing sulfur. [According to wikipedia, cysteine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine) is built from methionine. However, the wikipedia also... more
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06/24/19

How do centrioles auto-locate to opposite sides of cell during mitosis?
I realize that centrioles are made of 9 triplets of microtubulin wound together with a hollow core, and that they are responsible for the configuration of the spindle during mitosis. The spindle... more
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