L1.5 The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology Flashcards
Central dogma of molecular biology
The process by which the information in genes flows into proteins: DNA → RNA → protein
Coding strand
The opposite strand (that is, the strand with a base sequence directly corresponding to the mRNA sequence)
Codon
A sequence of three nucleotides that corresponds with a specific amino acid or start/stop signal during translation
gene
a section of DNA that encodes the information for building a polypeptide or functional
RNA molecule along with the regulatory sequences required for its transcription.
genetic code
a set of rules that specify the relationship between a sequence of
nucleotides in DNA/RNA and the amino acid sequence in the primary structure of a protein. The
genetic code is a triplet code with a number of important properties.
genotype
An organism’s underlying genetic makeup, consisting of both physically visible and non-expressed alleles,
Messenger RNA (mRNA)
Carries information from DNA in the nucleus to ribosomes in the cytoplasm
Non-coding RNA (ncRNA)
a functional RNA molecule that is transcribed from DNA but not translated into proteins.
phenotype
The observable traits expressed by an organism
reading frame
a reading frame is a way of dividing the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) molecule into a set of consecutive, non-overlapping triplets
reverse transcription
the process in cells by which an enzyme makes a copy of (complementary DNA) cDNA from an RNA template.
template strand
the non-coding strand that is copied to make a molecule of mRNA for translation
transcription
Information stored in DNA guides the synthesis of mRNA molecules in the process
translation
mRNA molecules are used to guide the synthesis of specific proteins in the
process
triplet code
also known as a set of three nucleotides