Genetics and DNA

Question 1

What is DNA?

Answer 1

the hereditary material in all organisms that is passed down from generation to generation

Question 2

What are the base pairs?

Answer 2

Adenine and Thymine (A+T), Guanine and Cytosine (G+C)

Question 3

What is a nucleotide?

Answer 3

a part of one half of the ladder of DNA; contains phosphate backbone, deoxyribose sugar, and the nitrogen-containing base

Question 4

Chromosome

Answer 4

long strands of DNA molecules that are packaged into thickly coiled structures

Question 5

Gene

Answer 5

a specific section of DNA that codes for one type of protein

Question 6

Who were the early scientists that were involved in discovering DNA’s structure?

Answer 6

Rosalind Franklin, Watson and Crick

Question 7

What is the shape of DNA?

Answer 7

double helix

Question 8

Where is DNA located?

Answer 8

the nucleus of the cell

Question 9

How does DNA replicate?

Answer 9

The strand splits in half, and each strand gets paired up with a new complementary strand to create two new strands of DNA.

Question 10

What is complementarity?

Answer 10

A is complementary to T, G is complementary to C. Base pairs are complementary to each other.

Question 11

What are the 4 main phases of the cell cycle?

Answer 11

G1, S, G2, Mitosis

Question 12

What is mitosis?

Answer 12

the process of cell division

Question 13

What are the 4 main phases of mitosis?

Answer 13

Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase

Question 14

What happens in prophase?

Answer 14

chromosomes and mitotic spindle form

Question 15

What happens in metaphase?

Answer 15

chromosomes line up

Question 16

What happens in anaphase?

Answer 16

chromosomes are pulled apart by the mitotic spindle

Question 17

What happens in telophase?

Answer 17

cell starts to separate into two new cells

Question 18

What is cytokinesis?

Answer 18

when the cytoplasm divides

Question 19

What is the purpose of checkpoints in the cell cycle?

Answer 19

to make sure that the cells are developing properly and that there is nothing wrong so that if there is a bad cancer cell it is stopped before it can reproduce

Question 20

What is interphase?

Answer 20

the period of time in the cell cycle when the cell is not dividing

Question 21

What is an allele?

Answer 21

one gene of the homologous chromosome pair that matches up with another gene from the opposite parent

Question 22

What are dominant and recessive traits?

Answer 22

Dominant - one to show up in phenotype
Recessive - 2 to show up in phenotype

Question 23

What does it mean if you are homozygous or heterozygous?

Answer 23

If you are heterozygous, you have one dominant allele and one recessive allele. If you are homozygous, you have two dominant or two recessive alleles.

Question 24

What is a pedigree chart?

Answer 24

A pedigree chart is a way to figure out people’s genotypes

Question 25

What are traits?

Answer 25

parts of your phenotype

Question 26

What is the difference between your genotype and your phenotype?

Answer 26

Your genotype is your allele code (AA, Aa, aa), whereas your phenotype is what shows up in your body (your appearance).