Molecular Cell Biology & Biomembranes (Prof Schütz)

453 Biomedical Engineering Biophysics
1

Hi,

I have not found anything about these two Schütz courses here, so I went through a few facebook posts to compile a list of previous exam questions. I hope they are are helpful to anyone:

Molecular Biology of the Cell

  1. Proteins
    Showed multiple AAs. Determine which ones they are. General structure. Four classes of AAs. Protein folding and Chaperones – the hsp families
  2. From DNA to Protein
    Translation. Initiation. Termination. General procedure of translation and involved parts. How is the AA and tRNA linked?
    RNA Processing (Cap, Splicing, Tail) – briefly
  3. Energy
    Glycolysis. Process. What goes in and comes out. General talk about humans not being at equilibrium. Process irreversible.
  4. amino acids , the production of ATP with exact numbers of ATP units and consumption , types of sugar
  5. mostly on the topics of glycolysis and cell metabolism
  6. identifying an amino acid (i got tyrosin)
  7. where in the cell are proteins modified via covalent bonding (attachment of a lipid chain to fix a protein to a membrane, ubiquitin, phosphorylation of RNA polymerase, attachment of sugars to membrane proteins,…)
  8. metabolism of a cell (glycolysis, krebs cycle, electron transport chain, ATP synthase)


    Biomembranes
  9. Lipid Synthesis
    Showed all lipids. What comes to your mind? Explain structure. Saturated / unsaturated and why it matters.
  10. Membrane Biophysics
    Fluidity and mobility of lipids in bilayer: Lateral, Rotational and Flip flop
    Formulas. Further calculations with the solution of the diffusion equation (not relevant to the examination, just wanted to show that it is a simplification of the system)
  11. Membrane Transport and Electric Signaling
    Equilibrium Potential. Nernst Equation. Explain it and the two compartments with different ion concentration motivation.
  12. molecular structure of several types of lipids and name one of them (what type is it, what is it used for)
  13. describe the sodium potassium channel
  14. gibbs phase rule
  15. phospholipids and cholesterol ester. identify them and what is the difference between cholesterol and cholesterol ester. What is the role of cholesterol in the membrane, lateral and rotational diffusion. Explain flip flop. Explain Nernst equation. What is a double bond


    Have fun!

@admins: This does not actually belong into the „Biophysics“ topic, but there is no category for the module „Cell Biology“ yet in „Integrative Pflichtfächer“, neither is there a category for „Molecular Cell Biology“ or „Biomembranes“. (I put it in here because Biophysics is also a Schütz lecture I think.) Resorting of the thread would be appreciated.

2

Hi,

I just had a combined exam for both lectures Molecular Cell Biology & Biomembranes. It consisted of two separate parts for each lecture, so no cross-reference questions.

Questions I was asked:

Molecular Cell Biology:

  • name the shown amino acid


  • categories of AA


  • what effect does the charge of a molecule have on itself => it affects protein folding


  • chaperones


  • naming the different parts of the AA: N-term, C-term, hydrophobic/hydrophilic → if you have a transmembrane protein, what does the cell do with it’s hydrophilic AA-backbone (since only the side-chains can be hydrophobic) => it forms alpha helices, where the hydrogen donors/acceptors bind to each other to form the secondary structure, which makes the protein effectively non-polar


  • how do membrane proteins get to the ER membrane

Biomembranes:

  • name the shown lipid, as well as the separate parts of the lipid


  • effect of (un)saturation on the properties of lipid bilayers; sn-1/sn-2 positions of a lipid have different degrees of saturation


  • draw the pressure profile of a lipid bilayer


  • the sum over the pressure normal = 0; what can cause the pressure normal to be unequal 0? => cytoskeleton causes tension onto the cell membrane (cortical actin rim, stress fibers)