The Genetic Code and Protein Synthesis Flashcards
What is a gene?
A sequence of DNA bases that code for a polypeptide or functional RNA.
What is an allele?
A different version of a gene.
What is a locus?
The fixed position of alleles that code for the same phenotype on a chromosome.
What is a codon?
a sequence of three bases.
What are introns?
Sections of the DNA that don’t code for amino acids.
What are exons?
Sections of the DNA that do code for amino acids.
What are stop codons?
Base triplets that tell the cell to stop producing a protein.
What is the genome?
The complete set of genes in a cell.
What is the proteome?
The complete set of proteins a cell can produce.
What are homologous chromosomes?
Chromosomes that have the same genes and are the same size. They can have different alleles for those genes.
What is the genetic code?
The sequence of base triplets that code for specific amino acids.
Why is the genetic code described as being non-overlapping?
Base triplets don’t share their bases with other bases.
Why is the genetic code described as being degenerate?
More than one base triplet can code for the same amino acid.
Why is the genetic code described as being universal?
A base triplet will code for the same amino acid across many different organisms.
What is transcription?
The DNA is copied to make a mRNA molecule.
What is translation?
The making of a protein.
What is the structure of mRNA?
A single polynucleotide chain that contains codons that code for amino amino acids.
What is the structure of tRNA?
A single polynucleotide chain folded into a clover-like shape. It contains an amino acid binding site and an anticodon that is complementary to a codon on the mRNA.
What happens during transcription?
How is pre-mRNA modified before it can be used to make proteins?
It is spliced and the introns are removed leaving only the exons which code for amino acids.
What happens during translation?
