Chapter 17 (Genetic Info Flow) Flashcards
(75 cards)
How is info stored in DNA?
nucleotide sequences
How do nucleotide sequences lead to specific traits?
directing protein synthesis
What do the proteins created by nucleotide sequences link together?
phenotype and genotype
What is a gene?
unit of inheritance, region of the chromosome, and nucleotide sequence that will specify the creation of proteins or sequence of RNA
What is gene expression?
a process where DNA directs protein synthesis
What are the stages of gene expression?
transcription and translation
What is transcription?
the process by which the information in a strand of DNA is copied into a new molecule of messenger RNA in the nucleus
What does transcription produce?
raw RNA product called pre-mRNA (messenger)
How are RNA transcripts modified?
RNA processing creates mature messenger RNA
What is translation?
process in which ribosomes in the cytoplasm or endoplasmic reticulum synthesize proteins after the process of transcription of DNA to RNA in the cell’s nucleus
What separates the process of transcription and translation?
nuclear envelope
What are the nucleotides found in DNA?
adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine
What are the nucleotides encoding?
amino acids
What’s the triplet code?
series of non-overlapping, three-nucleotide “words” that have 64 different combos
What is a codon?
the sequence of three nucleotides that form a unit of genetic code
Out of the 64 different combos of three nucleotides, how many codes for amino acids?
61
What do the remaining combos of codons represent?
stop codons
What is the start codon?
AUG
Even though there are 64 different combos of codons, why is there only production of 20 amino acids?
redundancy and non-ambiguity since multiple combos of codons can give you 1 amino acid
Is the genetic code universal?
yes, so that means you can give different genes to different organisms
What happens during transcription?
1 strand of DNA (template/non-coding strand) and makes complementary mRNA strand by replacing T with U
What happens during translation?
reading from 3’ to 5’ in a reading frame that is 5’ to 3’, each codon generates 1 amino acid and multiple amino acids make a protein
What is the first step in DNA replication?
helicase separates/unwinds double helix and separates strands to create semi-conservative template strands
What does helicase create?
a replication fork