Genetics Terminology Flashcards
What is Histology?
Histology is the study of the microanatomy of cells, tissues, and organs as seen through a microscope.
What is Cytoarchitecture?
Cytoarchitecture refers to the distribution of cells in cortical layers and sublayers, their density and morphology.
What is Mendelian Genetics?
Gregor Mendal believed that heredity is the result of discrete units of inheritance, and every singe unit (or gene) was was independent in its actions in an individual’s genome.
According to this Mendelian concept, inheritance of a trait depends on the passing-on of these units.
What are Chromosomes?
Chromosomes are thread-like structures located inside the nucleus of cells.
Each chromosome is made of proteins and a single molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
What is Chromatin?
Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in cells.
The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures.
What is a Genome?
A genome is the complete set of genetic information in an organism.
What is Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)?
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix carrying genetic information.
What are Nucleotides?
A nucleotide is the basic building block of nucleic acids.
A nucleotide consists of a sugar molecule (ribose in RNA or deoxyribose in DNA) attached to a phosphate group and a nitrogen-containing base.
The bases used in DNA are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
What are the nitrogenous bases found in DNA?
Adenine (A).
Thymine (T).
Cytosine (C).
Guanine (G).
What are Amino Acids?
Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins.
Amino acids and proteins are the building blocks of life.
What are Proteins?
Proteins are large, complex molecules that play many critical roles in the body.
They do most of the work in cells.
They are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs.
What are Receptors?
A protein in a cell membrane, which responds specifically to a particular neurotransmitter, hormone, antigen, or other substance.
What are Neurotransmitters?
Neurotransmitters are often referred to as the body’s chemical messengers.
They are the molecules used by the nervous system to transmit messages between neurons, or from neurons to muscles.
What are Hormones?
Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. They travel in your bloodstream to tissues or organs.
They work slowly, over time, and affect many different processes (e.g., adrenaline – increases heart rate).
What are Enzymes?
Enzymes are proteins that act as biological catalysts (accelerate chemical reactions) in many processes important for the function of the nervous system (e.g., deactivation of neurotransmitters).
What is Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA)?
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene.
The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made.
During protein synthesis, an organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA, reads its base sequence, and uses the genetic code to translate each three-base triplet, or codon, into its corresponding amino acid.
What is RNA Polymerase?
RNA polymerase is an enzyme that is responsible for copying a DNA sequence into an RNA sequence, during the process of transcription
What are Codons?
A codon is a trinucleotide (3 nucleotides) sequence of DNA or RNA that corresponds to a specific amino acid.
The genetic code describes the relationship between the sequence of DNA bases (A, C, G, and T) in a gene and the corresponding protein sequence that it encodes.
What are Ribosomes?
A ribosome is a cell organelle that acts like a micro-machine for making polypeptides and proteins.
The ribosome reads the sequence of the messenger RNA (mRNA) and, using the genetic code, translates the sequence of RNA bases into a sequence of amino acids.
What is a Transfer RNA (tRNA)?
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a small RNA molecule that participates in protein synthesis.
Each tRNA molecule has two important areas: a trinucleotide region called the anticodon and a region for attaching a specific amino acid.
