Readings Vocabulary Flashcards
Activated Nucleotide
A nucleotide with chemical leaving
group that allows it to polymerize (e.g., a triphosphate or an imidazole)
Aptamer
An RNA sequence that has been experimentally selected to bind to a target molecule.
Autocatalysis
A chemical reaction in which a molecule (or
set of molecules) catalyzes the formation of more of itself (or themselves)
Extremophile
An organism that is adapted for life in
extreme conditions that would not be habitable by most other organisms
Group Selection
Selection that acts on a group of entities
as a whole (such as animals living in a social group or molecules inside a protocell) and that favors survival of the whole group, in contrast to selection acting on individual members of a group that leads to competition between the
individuals
Ligase
A ribozyme that catalyzes the linking of two RNA strands to make a longer strand
Polymerase
A ribozyme that catalyzes polymerization of
ribonucleotides to make RNA sequences
Recombinase
A ribozyme that catalyzes a cross-over (or
recombination) reaction between two RNA strands
Replication
A process in which a second copy of a given
molecular sequence is created
Ribozyme
A catalytic RNA molecule (as opposed to an
enzyme, which is a catalytic protein).
Prebiotic nucleotide
A chemical that was likely present in early Earth and was a precursors to the nucleotides that make up DNA and RNA. (thought to be apart of pre-RNA)
Prebiotic
A chemical or environmental precursor to the origin of life
Nucleotide
a basic component of nucleic acids like DNA and RNA
Orphan genes
Genes that lack homologues in other lineages — that is, they cannot be linked by overall similarity or shared domains to genes or gene families known from other organisms
Purifying Selection
The removal of deleterious mutations through natural selection
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST)
A program that compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches.
Protostomes
The animal superphylum that includes nematodes (for example, Caenorhabditis
elegans) and arthropods (for example, Drosophila melanogaster
Deuterostomes
The animal superphylum that includes vertebrates (for example, zebrafish) and mammals (for example, humans).
Founder Genes
The phylogenetically oldest genes forming the basis of a new gene lineage, new protein domain or new gene family. The origin of founder genes is expected to correlate with evolution of functional novelty
Phylostratigraphy
A systematic procedure to identify the origin of genes within a comparative framework of fully sequenced genomes at multiple levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy (the phylostrata)
Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT)
The exchange of genes between different evolutionary lineages
Retrotransposons
Transposons that require an RNA intermediate for their transposition
Transposition
Action of transporting something
Sexual Selection
A form of selection that arises from the interaction between the sexes and their gametes rather than from interactions with the environment
Positive Selection
The increase in frequency and fixation of alleles that contributes to the fitness of an organism
Selective sweeps
The reduction or elimination of nucleotide variation in the genomic region that surrounds a positively selected new mutation
Phylostratum
A node in the phylogenetic hierarchy that is represented by one or more fully sequenced genomes and where a set of genes from an organism coalesce to founder genes
Synteny
Conserved genomic arrangement of genes in a linear order
Iconoclastic
a breaking of established rules or destruction of accepted beliefs
Inteins
internal proteins
Intracellular
Within the cell
Intercellular
located or occurring between cells
Homing Endonucleases (HEs)
enzymes that cut DNA at specific sites in the genome
Intragenic Region
a region of DNA that is located within a gene
Splicesome
Concordant translation
Negative Selection
Twintrons
IStrons
Transesterfication
Noncanonical Iteins
Dodecapeptide motifs
DNA resolvases
Homing
Flanking exon/extein sequence
Ectopic sites
Replicase
Cholesterol moiety
Transposition
Intergenic region
