WGU BioChem OA Review with Complete and Verified Solutions — Biochemistry Objective Assessment Study Guide (All Questions & Answers)

This document is the WGU BioChem OA Review with Complete and Verified Solutions, a comprehensive biochemistry objective assessment study guide containing exam-style questions with verified answers covering the full scope of WGU biochemistry. The content includes molecular biology techniques such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), its three steps of denaturing, annealing, and elongating, the required components of template DNA, nucleotides (dNTPs), DNA polymerase, and DNA primers, and what is not involved in PCR; DNA repair mechanisms including base excision repair (BER) with glycosylases, DNA polymerase, and DNA ligase, mismatch repair (MMR) during replication and proofreading, nucleotide repair for UV damage, homologous recombination for double-stranded breaks, and non-homologous recombination leading to frameshift mutations; DNA transcription, RNA splicing where introns are removed and exons joined, gene expression, epigenetics, and DNA packaging into nucleosomes and chromatin; mutation types including nonsense mutations producing premature stop codons, silent mutations with no phenotypic effect, and missense mutations coding for different amino acids; inheritance patterns including autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive conditions, X-linked dominant disorders, heterozygous and homozygous genotypes, and the inheritance of sickle cell anemia with the GAG to GUG change in hemoglobin; amino acid chemistry including polar, non-polar, ionized amino acids, hydrophobic and hydrophilic side chains, and what happens when alanine loses an electron; protein structure and misfolding including the four levels of protein structure (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary), what determines the 3D shape of a protein, secondary structure beta sheets and alpha helices, denaturing, molecular chaperones, protein aggregation, and the role of amyloid-beta and TAU protein in Alzheimer's disease, plus neurodegenerative protein aggregation in Parkinson's, Huntington's, ALS, and prion diseases; enzyme kinetics including substrates, substrate-enzyme complexes, active sites, allosteric sites, competitive and non-competitive inhibitors, feedback inhibition, and how methotrexate treats cancer; metabolic pathways including the citric acid cycle, acetyl CoA, NADH and FADH2, fermentation, anaerobic glycolysis, the Cori cycle, substrate-level phosphorylation, glycogenesis, glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycolysis, glycation, glucose and glycogen, and how glucagon and insulin regulate carbohydrate metabolism, plus GluT4 and metformin; lipid and fatty acid metabolism including beta oxidation in the mitochondria, fatty acid synthesis in the cytoplasm, saturated versus unsaturated fats, CIS and TRANS configurations, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, triglycerides, eicosanoids, phospholipids, the fluid mosaic model, cholesterol structure and function, and MCAD deficiency with its dietary management; hemoglobin and oxygen transport including cooperative binding, carbon monoxide poisoning, 2,3-BPG, the tense and relaxed states of hemoglobin, the difference between hemoglobin and myoglobin affinity, the Bohr effect, and how pH and CO2 influence oxygen saturation; and clinical correlations including myoglobin and troponin in myocardial infarction, LDL and high cholesterol, and the CHART mnemonic for low pH, high carbon dioxide, high hydrogen, acidic, right shift, and tense state.