In: Biology
1. The chicken ovalbumin gene has five introns and interrupting the coding sequences or exons. How many R-loops will be observed if DNA of the gene and cytoplasmic mRNA are mixed under conditions that allow hybridization? How many R-loops will be observed if nuclear pre-mRNA is used?
R-loops or recombination loops are the physical loops formed during mRNA processing in order to perform two main functions:
The number of R-loops formed in a nascent mRNA depends upon the number of introns present in it. Since all the introns are required to be absolutely removed, all the introns contribute to formation of a R-loop. Hence, number of R-loops remains equal to the number of introns. Further, each intron resides between two exons, hence, the number of introns must be technically one less than the number of exons.
Thus, according to the information, the number of introns in chicken ovalbumin gene is 5, thus total 5 R-loops will be formed in the cytoplasmic mRNA. Importantly, the pre-mRNA or nuclear mRNA does not undergo splicing, hence no R-loops will be formed in it.