Readings Vocabulary

Question 1

Activated Nucleotide

Answer 1

A nucleotide with chemical leaving
group that allows it to polymerize (e.g., a triphosphate or an imidazole)

Question 2

Aptamer

Answer 2

An RNA sequence that has been experimentally selected to bind to a target molecule.

Question 3

Autocatalysis

Answer 3

A chemical reaction in which a molecule (or
set of molecules) catalyzes the formation of more of itself (or themselves)

Question 4

Extremophile

Answer 4

An organism that is adapted for life in
extreme conditions that would not be habitable by most other organisms

Question 5

Group Selection

Answer 5

Selection that acts on a group of entities
as a whole (such as animals living in a social group or molecules inside a protocell) and that favors survival of the whole group, in contrast to selection acting on individual members of a group that leads to competition between the
individuals

Question 6

Ligase

Answer 6

A ribozyme that catalyzes the linking of two RNA strands to make a longer strand

Question 7

Polymerase

Answer 7

A ribozyme that catalyzes polymerization of
ribonucleotides to make RNA sequences

Question 9

Recombinase

Answer 9

A ribozyme that catalyzes a cross-over (or
recombination) reaction between two RNA strands

Question 10

Replication

Answer 10

A process in which a second copy of a given
molecular sequence is created

Question 11

Ribozyme

Answer 11

A catalytic RNA molecule (as opposed to an
enzyme, which is a catalytic protein).

Question 12

Prebiotic nucleotide

Answer 12

A chemical that was likely present in early Earth and was a precursors to the nucleotides that make up DNA and RNA. (thought to be apart of pre-RNA)

Question 13

Prebiotic

Answer 13

A chemical or environmental precursor to the origin of life

Question 14

Nucleotide

Answer 14

a basic component of nucleic acids like DNA and RNA

Question 15

Orphan genes

Answer 15

Genes that lack homologues in other lineages — that is, they cannot be linked by overall similarity or shared domains to genes or gene families known from other organisms

Question 16

Purifying Selection

Answer 16

The removal of deleterious mutations through natural selection

Question 17

Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST)

Answer 17

A program that compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches.

Question 18

Protostomes

Answer 18

The animal superphylum that includes nematodes (for example, Caenorhabditis
elegans) and arthropods (for example, Drosophila melanogaster

Question 19

Deuterostomes

Answer 19

The animal superphylum that includes vertebrates (for example, zebrafish) and mammals (for example, humans).

Question 20

Founder Genes

Answer 20

The phylogenetically oldest genes forming the basis of a new gene lineage, new protein domain or new gene family. The origin of founder genes is expected to correlate with evolution of functional novelty

Question 21

Phylostratigraphy

Answer 21

A systematic procedure to identify the origin of genes within a comparative framework of fully sequenced genomes at multiple levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy (the phylostrata)

Question 22

Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT)

Answer 22

The exchange of genes between different evolutionary lineages

Question 23

Retrotransposons

Answer 23

Transposons that require an RNA intermediate for their transposition

Question 24

Transposition

Answer 24

Action of transporting something

Question 25

Sexual Selection

Answer 25

A form of selection that arises from the interaction between the sexes and their gametes rather than from interactions with the environment

Question 26

Positive Selection

Answer 26

The increase in frequency and fixation of alleles that contributes to the fitness of an organism

Question 27

Selective sweeps

Answer 27

The reduction or elimination of nucleotide variation in the genomic region that surrounds a positively selected new mutation

Question 28

Phylostratum

Answer 28

A node in the phylogenetic hierarchy that is represented by one or more fully sequenced genomes and where a set of genes from an organism coalesce to founder genes

Question 29

Synteny

Answer 29

Conserved genomic arrangement of genes in a linear order

Question 30

Iconoclastic

Answer 30

a breaking of established rules or destruction of accepted beliefs

Question 31

Inteins

Answer 31

internal proteins

Question 32

Intracellular

Answer 32

Within the cell

Question 33

Intercellular

Answer 33

located or occurring between cells

Question 34

Homing Endonucleases (HEs)

Answer 34

enzymes that cut DNA at specific sites in the genome

Question 35

Intragenic Region

Answer 35

a region of DNA that is located within a gene

Question 36

Splicesome

Question 37

Concordant translation

Question 38

Negative Selection

Question 39

Twintrons

Question 40

IStrons

Question 41

Transesterfication

Question 42

Noncanonical Iteins

Question 43

Dodecapeptide motifs

Question 44

DNA resolvases

Question 45

Homing

Question 46

Flanking exon/extein sequence

Question 47

Ectopic sites

Question 48

Replicase

Question 49

Cholesterol moiety

Question 50

Transposition

Question 51

Intergenic region