What Is Life: Biology Chapter 5

Front 1

What is an ALLELE?

Back 1

Alternative versions of a gene

Front 2

What is a BASE?

Back 2

One of the nitrogen-containing side-chain molecules attached to a sugar molecule in the sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA and RNA. The four bases in DNA are adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C); the four bases in RNA are adenine (A), uracil (U), guanine (G), and cytosine (C); the information in a molecule of DNA and RNA is determined by its sequence of bases

Front 3

What is a BASE PAIR?

Back 3

Two nucleotides on complementary strands of DNA that form a pair, linked by hydrogen bonds; the patterns of pairing is adenine (A) with thymine (T) and cytosine (C) with guanine (G); the base-paired arrangement forms the "rungs" of the double-helix structure of DNA

Front 4

What is BIOTECHNOLOGY?

Back 4

The modification of organisms, cells, and their molecules for practical benefits

Front 5

What is a CHROMOSOMAL ABERRATION?

Back 5

A type of mutation categorized by a change in the overall organization of genes on the chromosomes, such as the deletion of a section of DNA; the moving of a gene from one part of a chromosome to elsewhere on the same chromosome or a different chromosome, or the duplication of a gene, with the new copy inserted elsewhere on the chromosome or on a different chromosome

Front 6

What is a CHROMOSOME?

Back 6

A linear or circular strand of DNA on which are found specific sequence of base pairs; the human genome consists of two copies of each 23 unique chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father

Front 7

What is a CLONE?

Back 7

A genetically identical DNA fragment, cell or organism produced by a single cell or organism

Front 8

What is a CLONE LIBRARY?

Back 8

A collection of cloned DNA fragments, also known as a gene library

Front 9

What is CLONING?

Back 9

The production of genetically identical cells, organisms, or DNA molecules

Front 10

What is a CODE?

Back 10

In genetics, the base sequence of a gene

Front 11

What is a CODON?

Back 11

Three-base sequence in mRNA that link with complementary tRNA molecules, which are attached to amino acids; a codon with yet another sequence ends the process of assembling a protein from amino acid

Front 12

What is DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA)?

Back 12

A nucleic acid, DNA carries information about the production of particular proteins in the sequences of its nucleotide bases

Front 13

What is a DNA PROBE?

Back 13

A short sequence of radioactively tagged single-stranded DNA that contain part of the sequence of the gene of interest, used to locate that gene in a gene library; the probe binds to the complementary base pair on a gene in the library, which is identified by the radioactive tag on the probe

Front 14

What is a GENE?

Back 14

The basic unit of heredity; a sequence of DNA nucleotides on a chromosome that carries the information necessary for making a functional product, usually a protein or RNA molecule

Front 15

What is a GENE LIBRARY?

Back 15

A collection of cloned DNA fragments, also know as a clone library

Front 16

What is GENE THERAPY?

Back 16

A therapy designed to treat or cure a disease by insertion of a functional gene to replace a defective version of the gene

Front 17

What is GENETIC ENGINEERING?

Back 17

The manipulation of an organism's genetic material by adding, deleting, or transplanting genes from one organism to another

Front 18

What is a GENOME?

Back 18

The full set of DNA present in an individual organism; also can refer to the full set of DNA present in a species

Front 19

What is a GENOTYPE?

Back 19

The genes that an organism carries for a particular trait; also, collectively, an organism's genetic composition

Front 20

What is HUMAN GENOME PROJECT?

Back 20

A project to decode the three billion base pairs in the human genome and to identify all genes present in it

Front 21

What is HYBRIDIZATION?

Back 21

The interbreeding of closely related species

Front 22

What is an INTRON?

Back 22

A non-coding region of DNA

Front 23

What is a MESSENGER RNA (mRNA)?

Back 23

The ribonucleic acid that "reads" the sequence for a gene in DNA and then moves from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where the next stage of protein synthesis will take place

Front 24

What is MUTATION?

Back 24

An alteration in the base-pair sequence of an individual's DNA; may arise spontaneously or following exposure to a mutagen

Front 25

What is NUCLEIC ACID?

Back 25

One of the four types of biological macromolecules, the nucleic acids DNA and RNA store genetic information in unique sequences of nucleotides

Front 26

What is a NUCLEOTIDE?

Back 26

A molecule containing a phosphate group, a sugar molecule, and a nitrogen-containing molecule; nucleotides are the individual units that together, in a unique sequence, constitute a nucleic acid

Front 27

What is a PHENOTYPE?

Back 27

The manifested structure, function, and behaviors of an individual; the expression of the genotype of an organism

Front 28

What is a PHYLOGENETIC TREE?

Back 28

A grouping of organisms in a hierarchical system that reflects the evolutionary history and relatedness of the organisms

Front 29

What is a PLASMID?

Back 29

A circular DNA molecule found outside the main chromosome in bacteria

Front 30

What is POINT MUTATION?

Back 30

A mutation in which one base pair in DNA is replaced with another or a base pair is either inserted or deleted

Front 31

What is POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR)?

Back 31

A laboratory technique in which a fragment of DNA can be duplicated repeatedly

Front 32

What is a PROMOTER SITE?

Back 32

A part of a DNA molecule that indicates where the sequence of base pairs that makes up a gene begins

Front 33

What is PROTEIN SYNTHESIS?

Back 33

The construction of a protein from its constituent amino acids, by the processes of transcription and translation

Front 34

What is RECOMBINANT DNA TECHNOLOGY?

Back 34

Technology that depends on the combination of two or more sources of DNA into a product; an example is the production of human insulin from fast-dividing transgenic E. coli bacteria in which has been inserted the human DNA sequence that codes for the production of insulin

Front 35

What are RESTRICTION ENZYMES?

Back 35

Enzymes that recognize and bind to different specific sequences of four to eight bases in DNA and cut the DNA at that point; restriction enzymes are important in biotechnology because they permit the cutting of short lengths of DNA, which can be inserted into other chromosomes or otherwise be utilized

Front 36

What are RIBOSOMAL SUBUNITS?

Back 36

The two structural parts of a ribosome, which function together to translate mRNA to build a chain of amino acids that will make up of protein

Front 37

What is a STEM CELL?

Back 37

Undifferentiated cells that have the ability to develop into any type of cell in the body; this property makes stem cells useful in biotechnology

Front 38

What is a TRAIT?

Back 38

Any characteristic or feature of an organism, such as red petal color in a flower

Front 39

What is TRANSCRIPTION?

Back 39

The process by which a gene's base sequence is copied to mRNA

Front 40

What is TRANSFER RNA (tRNA)?

Back 40

RNA molecules in the cytoplasm that link specific triplet base sequences on mRNA to specific amino acids

Front 41

What is a TRANSGENIC ORGANISM?

Back 41

An organism that contains DNA from another species

Front 42

What is TRANSLATION?

Back 42

The process by which mRNA, which encodes a gene's base sequence, directs the production of a protein

Front 43

What is VNTRs (variable number of tandem repeats)?

Back 43

Regions of repeating sequences of bases in DNA that vary in the number of times the sequence repeats from individual and, in a given individual, between homologues; identification of the number of repeats in several regions can serve as a DNA "fingerprint" unique to an individual