Chapter 18 Flashcards
A protein that binds to DNA and stimulates gene transcription. In Prokaryotes, ______ bind in or near the promotor; in eukaryotes, ______ bind to control elements in enhancers.
Activator
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 eons and which as introns.
Alternative RNA Splicing
A maternal effect gene that codes for a protein responsible for specifying the anterior end in Drosophila.
Bicoid
A small molecule that binds to a bacterial repressor protein and changes its shape, allowing it to switch an operon off.
Corepressor
Cyclic adenosine monophosphate, a ring-shaped molecule made from ATP that is a common intracellular signaling molecule (second messenger) in eukaryotic cells. It is also a regulator of some bacterial operons.
Cyclic AMP (cAMP)
A segment of noncoding DNA that helps regulate transcription of a gene by binding a transcription factor. Multiple _____ _____ are present in a eukaryotic gene’s enhancer.
Control Element
The structure and functional divergence of cells as they become specialized during a multicellular organism’s development. ____ _________ depends on the control of gene expression.
Cell Differentiation
A maternal substance, such as a protein or RNA, placed into an egg that influences the course of early development by regulating the expression of genes that affect the developmental fate of cells.
Cytoplasmic Determinant
The progressive restriction of developmental potential in which the possible fate of each cell becomes more limited as an embryo develops. At the end of _____, a cell is committed to its fate.
Determination
The expression of different sets of genes by cells with the same genome.
Differential Gene Expression
Inheritance of traits transmitted by mechanisms not directly involve ding the nucleotide sequence of a genome.
Epigenetic Inheritance
A segment of eukaryotic DNA containing multiple control elements, usually located far from the gene whose transcription it regulates.
Enhancer
A mutation with a phenotype leading to death of an embryo or larva.
Embryonic Lethal
A gene that helps control the orientation (polarity) of the egg; also called a maternal effect gene.
Egg-Polarity Gene
A phenomenon in which expression of an allele in offspring depends on whether the allele is inherited from the male or female parent.
Genomic Imprinting
Any of the master regulatory genes that control placement and spatial organization of body parts in animals, plants, and fungi by controlling the development fate of groups of cells.
Homeotic Gene
The attachment of acetyl groups to certain amino acids of histone proteins.
Histone Acetylation
A specific small molecule that binds to a bacterial repressor protein and changes the repressor’s shape so that it cannot bind to an operator, thus switching an operon on.
Inducer
The process in which one group of embryonic cells influences the development of another, usually by causing changes in gene expression.
Induction
A substance, such as Bicoid protein in Drosophila, that provides positional information in the form of a concentration gradient along an embryonic axis.
Morphogen
A gene that, when mutant in the mother, results in a mutant phenotype in the offspring, regardless of the offspring’s genotype. First identified in Drosophila.
Maternal Effect Gene
The development of body shape and organization.
Morphogenesis
A small, single-stranded RNA molecule, generated from a hairpin structure on a precursor RNA transcribed from a particular gene. The miRNA associates with one or more proteins in a complex that can degrade or prevent translation of an mRNA with a complementary sequence.
microRNA (miRNA)
A gene found in viral or cellular genomes that is involved in triggering molecular events that can lead to cancer.
Oncogene
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.
Operon
In bacterial DNA, a sequence of nucleotides near the start of an operon to which an active repressor can attach. The binding of the repressor prevents RNA polymerase from attaching to the promoter and transcribing the genes of the operon.
Operator
A giant protein complex that recognizes and destroys proteins tagged for elimination by the small protein ubiquitin.
Proteasome
The development of a multicellular organism’s spatial organization, the arrangement of organs and tissues in their characteristic places in three-dimensional space.
Pattern Formation
Molecular cues that control pattern formation in an animal or plant embryonic structure by indicating a cell’s location relative to the organism’s body axes. These cues elicit a response by genes that regulate development.
Positional Information
A normal cellular gene that has the potential to become an oncogene.
Proto-oncogene
A protein that inhibits gene transcription. In prokaryotes, ______ bind to the DNA in or near the promotors. In eukaryotes, _______ bind to the DNA in or near the promoter. In eukaryotes, _______ may bind to control elements within enhancers, to activators, or to other proteins in a away that blocks activators from binding to DNA.
Repressor
A gene that codes for a protein, such as a repressor, that controls the transcription of another gene or group of genes.
Regulator
A technique used to silence the expression of selected genes. RNAi uses synthetic double-stranded RNA molecules that match the sequence of a particular gene to trigger the breakdown of the gene’s messenger RNA.
RNA interference (RNAi)
A gene whose protein product inhibits cell division, thereby preventing the uncontrolled cell growth that contributes to cancer.
Tumor-supressor Gene
