Definitions Flashcards
What is genetics?
The study of genes and inheritance
What is a genome?
All the chromosomes and DNA sequences in an organism
What is heredity?
Biological similarities between parent and offspring based on genetic information
What is a genotype?
The specific set of genetic information inherited by an organism
What is a phenotype?
The expressed characteristics based on the genetic information
What is genetic variation?
The changes in the genotype that changes the phenotype
What is transformation?
The uptake of foreign DNA from the environment into a cell
What are bacteriophages?
A virus made up of a protein coat and DNA. They inject their DNA into a bacterial cell and turn it into a virus factory
What are prototrophs?
Strains with functional pathways and can grow on minimal media
What are auxotrophs?
Strains that are mutated in a pathway and are unable to grow on minimal media
What is a gene?
A unit of heredity that is transcribed into RNA
What are non-coding sequences?
Promotor regions, untranslated regions, terminator sequences, regulatory sequences, stuff that isn’t encoding an amino acid in a protein
What is the promotor region?
Signals beginning of transcription
What is the terminator region?
Signals the end of transcription
What are regulatory sequences?
A sequence that is recognized by regulatory proteins that turn transcription on or off