1001/203.

300
ALB
Internal Only

CP1

MASSEY UNIVERSITY
ALBANY CAMPUS
EXAMINATION FOR
203.300 DNA TECHNOLOGY
Semester One 2010

Time allowed : THREE (3) hours.

Candidates are required to answer THREE (3) questions from SECTION A
(allow 45 minutes for this section)
and THREE (3) questions from SECTION B
(allow 2 hours and 15 minutes for this section).
Non-programmable calculators only are permitted.

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SECTION A
Candidates are required to answer
THREE (3) questions from THIS SECTION.
Allow FIFTEEN (15) minutes for each question.
All questions are of equal value.
This section is worth one quarter of the examination paper.

1. Briefly discuss the historical and scientific significance of Photo 51 (shown

below), which was taken by Rosalind Franklin in 1952.

2. You are in charge of three different sequencing projects, listed below. Choose
an appropriate sequencing platform for each project and justify your choice (you
do not need to describe the methodology).
a) Sequencing DNA from 100,000-year old bird bone remains discovered in
South America.
b) Determining all the living species in a sample of sludge from a deep-sea vent.
c) Sequencing your own genome to look for SNPs.

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3. Compare and contrast the use of microarrays and next-generation sequencing

for analyzing transcriptomes.

4. For each of the following, explain briefly why:

a) Microsatellites are very useful for forensic analysis.
b) Maximum likelihood approaches are preferable to maximum parsimony, for
reconstructing the sequences of ancestral genes.

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CP1

SECTION B
Candidates are required to answer
THREE (3) questions from THIS SECTION.
Allow FORTY-FIVE (45) minutes for each question.
All questions are of equal value.
This section is worth three quarters of the examination paper.

6.

Write an essay on PCR-based mutagenesis. You do not need to outline the

basic principles of PCR, but you should include the types of mutations (both
designed and random) that can be incorporated using PCR. What sorts of
hypotheses can be tested by using these mutagenesis techniques?

7. A group of scientists generated bacterial fingerprints for individuals, by

sequencing fragments of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA genes isolated from
human samples. Describe how sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA can provide
these individual-specific fingerprints and the key factors that would need to be
taken into account to perform this study. Also describe how the sequence data
would be analyzed.

8.

You are designing a new kit for extracting DNA from agarose gels. You plan to
use a functional metagenomics approach to identify a new agarase enzyme
(which will be used in your kit to digest gel slices, releasing the DNA). You know
that agarose is a polysaccharide produced by some species of algae.
a) Write a research plan that describes your experiments to identify a suitable
agarase. Consider the source(s) of DNA for your metagenomic library, the
preparation of the DNA, the type of vector that you will use and the method of
screening.
(25 minutes)
b) Once you have identified a new agarase, you plan to optimize it for use in your
kit. What properties of the enzyme might you need to optimize, and what
experimental approaches could you take to engineer those properties?
(20 minutes)

9.

Discuss the prospects for using DNA technology to clean up contaminated

environments.
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