Chapter 15

Question 0

A unit of genetic function found in bacteria and phages, consisting of a promoter, an operator, and a coordinately regulated cluster of genes whose products function in a common pathway

Answer 0

Operon

Question 1

In phage DNA, a sequence of nucleotides near the start of an operon to which an active repressor can attach.

Answer 1

Operator

Question 2

A protein that inhibits gene transcription

Answer 2

Repressor

Question 3

A gene that codes for a protein, such as a repressor, that controls the transcription of another gene or group of genes

Answer 3

Regulatory gene

Question 4

A small molecule that cooperates with a repressor protein to switch an operon off

Answer 4

Corepressor

Question 5

A small molecule that inactivates the repressor

Answer 5

Inducer

Question 6

A ring-shaped molecule made from ATP that is a common intracellular signaling molecule (second messenger) in eukaryotic cells

Answer 6

Cyclic AMP (cAMP)

Question 7

A protein that binds to DNA and stimulates transcription of a gene

Answer 7

Activator

Question 8

The expression of different sets of genes by cells with the same genome

Answer 8

Differential gene expression

Question 9

The attachment of acetyl groups to certain amino acids of histone proteins

Answer 9

Histone acetylation

Question 10

The presence of methyl groups on the DNA bases of plants, animals, and fungi

Answer 10

DNA methylation

Question 11

Inheritance of traits transmitted by mechanisms not directly involving the nucleotide sequence

Answer 11

Epigenetic inheritance

Question 12

Segments of noncoding DNA that help regulate transcription of a gene by serving as a binding site for a transcription factor

Answer 12

Control elements

Question 13

A segment of eukaryotic DNA containing multiple control elements, usually located far from the gene whose transcription it regulates

Answer 13

Enhancers

Question 14

A type of eukaryotic gene regulation at the RNA-processing level in which different mRNA molecules are produced from the same primary transcript, depending on which RNA segments are treated as exons and which as introns

Answer 14

Alternative RNA splicing

Question 15

Small single-stranded RNA molecule, generated from a hairpin structure on a precursor RNA transcribed from a particular gene

Answer 15

MicroRNAs (miRNA)

Question 16

Small, single-stranded RNA molecules generated by cellular machinery from a long, linear, double-stranded RNA molecule

Answer 16

Small interfering RNAs (siRNA)

Question 17

A technique used to silence the expression of selected genes

Answer 17

RNA interference (RNAi)

Question 18

The process of base pairing between a gene and a complementary sequence on another nucleic acid molecule

Answer 18

Nucleic acid hybridization

Question 19

A labeled single-stranded nucleic acid molecule used to locate a specific nucleotide sequence in a nucleic acid sample

Answer 19

Nucleic acid probe

Question 20

A technique using nucleic acid hybridization with a labeled probe to detect the location of a specific mRNA in an intact organism

Answer 20

In situ hybridization

Question 21

A technique for determining expression of a particular gene. It uses reverse transcriptase and DNA polymerase to synthesize cDNA from all the mRNA in a sample and then subjects the cDNA to PCR amplification using primers specific for the gene of interest

Answer 21

Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)

Question 22

A double-stranded DNA molecule made in vitro using mRNA as a template and the enzymes reverse transcriptase and DNA polymerase

Answer 22

Complementary DNA (cDNA)

Question 23

A method to detect and measure the expression of thousands of genes at one time

Answer 23

DNA microarray assays