Introduction to Genetics Flashcards
What is forward genetics?
Pick a phenotype of interest, do mutagenesis, isolate that mutant then characterize it
What is an advantage of forward genetics?
Don’t have to know anything about the DNA sequence
What is a disadvantage of forward genetics?
Can only do for phenotypes you can look for
What is reverse genetics?
Start with a DNA sequence, mutate it, look for a phenotypic effect
What is a genome?
The complete genetic info of an organism, including coding and non-coding sequences on the chromosome and plasmids
What is a wild-type organism?
The normal type of an organism from which mutants are derived
What is a mutation?
A heritable change in the DNA sequence
What is a mutant?
Organism containing a mutation
If a mutation happened in nature instead of in a lab, is it still called a mutant?
Forms a new strain instead of a mutant
What is mutagenesis?
Production of mutations by using mutagens
What is a phenotype?
Any identifiable characteristic of a cell or organism due to expression of the genotype
What is a genotype?
Sequence of nucleotides in the DNA of the organism
What are isogenic organisms?
Two organisms that only differ in one allele
What is an allele?
One of the forms of a gene
How do you name a bacterial gene?
3 lowercase italic letters referring to the gene’s function, followed by a capital italic letter if more than 1 gene is involved in the process. A mutant allele will have a number after it depending on the order it was discovered
