Biotechnology
– Maximum of 500 words for each question
Question 1.
Describe in detail the pathways for engineering functional CO2 -concentrating mechanisms into plant chloroplasts.
Question 2.
This question is in two parts, each carrying equal marks.
(a) The formal definitions for metabolite identifications have been defined by the Metabolite Standards Initiative. With particular reference to the identification of tryptophan using GC-MS discuss how Level 2 identification is achieved and how this can be improved to Level 1.
(b) Now that you know you can detect tryptophan with GC-MS; how can its level in a yeast culture be quantified?
Question 3.
This question involves genetic engineering and is in three parts, each carrying equal
marks.
(a) Describe the principles of the ‘maquette’ approach to de novo protein design.
(b) Describe in vitro compartmentalisation used in directed evolution experiments. What are the advantages of using this technique over in vivo experiments?
(c) What is the difference between non-homologous end-joining and homology-directed repair of a nuclease-induced double-strand break? How can each be used in genome editing to introduce mutations?
Question 4.
This question involves genetic modification and is in three parts, each
carrying equal marks.
(a) What are the differences between rational design and directed evolution approaches to protein design?
(b) You want to introduce an indel into a gene encoding a eukaryotic protein of known structure to disrupt the gene’s function. Where in the gene sequence should you target, and why?
(c) How does off-target nuclease activity with CRISPR-Cas9 occur? Why is this a problem? How is this most-commonly minimised?