Story of Us : part 1 Flashcards
what is the full form of DNA?
deoxyribonucleic acid
what is the function of DNA?
- stores the genetic information
- controls cell activities
what is genetic information comprised of?
- instructions for building all proteins within an organism
how is DNA found in eukaryotes?
- within the nucleus
- as linear (straight) chromosomes
how is DNA found in prokaryotes?
- in the cytoplasm
- in the form of a circular chromosome and many small plasmids
what is the structure of DNA?
- double helix shape (two strands wrapping around each other)
- made up of building blocks called nucleotides
what are nucleotides comprised of?
- a sugar (deoxyribose)
- a phosphate
- a nitrogenous base
what are the four types of base and its pairs?
- adenine - thymine
- cytosine - guanine
how are the nucleotides joined together?
- by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate group of the next nucleotide - forming the sugar phosphate backbone
what will always be the same for the bases?
- the number of A’s and T’s
- the number of C’s and G’s
what is RNA?
- a type of nucleic acid called ribonucleic acid
what is the structure of RNA?
- the RNA nucleotides are joined to form a single strand
- the nucleotides are joined by a covalent bond between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next
how does RNA differ from DNA?
- RNA is single stranded while DNA is double stranded
- RNA has a sugar called ribose while DNA has a sugar called deoxyribose
- RNA has the base uracil (U) while DNA has the base thymine (T)
what are the two types of RNA you need to know?
- messenger RNA
- transfer RNA
describe the messenger RNA.
- mRNA
- formed in the nucleus of the cell
- it copies the sequence of bases of a section of DNA in a process called transcription
- mRNA carries the code for building a specific protein from the nucleus to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm
describe the transfer RNA.
- tRNA
- found in the cytoplasm
- the tRNA picks up specific amino acids from the cytoplasm and brings them into position on the surface of a ribosome where they can be joined together in specific order to make a specific protein
- process is called translation
what is a gene?
- a length of DNA which codes for a protein
- this means it provides info on the sequence of amino acids in a protein (like an enzyme)
what do the proteins coded by genes do?
- these proteins then control chemical reactions, growth, colouration and all inheritable characteristics
- this is why a gene codes for a characteristic
how are the codes for the proteins read?
- universally
- the code is universal
- bacteria read it in the same way that animal cells and plant cells read it
in DNA, what do the sequence of three bases code for?
- a specific amino acid
what do we refer to every three bases as in a chain of amino acids in a protein?
- a codon
what is DNA wrapped in?
- structures called chromosomes
how many of each chromosome does a person have?
- two of each chromosome
- one of each pair comes from the father, the other from the mother
why do we say chromosomes are homologous?
- genes controlling a specific characteristic are situated at the same point on each chromosome
what is there in every diploid nucleus?
- there is a pair of genes for each characteristic
what can genes have?
- different versions called alleles, which code for different forms of a protein
what is the genome?
- one copy of all an organism’s DNA
- in humans this is all the DNA that makes up the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in all diploid body cells
what are all the diploid body cells?
- all cells except sex cells or gametes which only have half of a person’s genome (haploid)