unit 4, genetic code

Question 1

what is a gene?

Answer 1

codes for an amino acid sequence

Question 2

what does locus mean?

Answer 2

location of a gene

Question 3

what is a triplet code?

Answer 3

the bases, that code for an amino acid

Question 4

what are the characterisitcs of the triplet code?

Answer 4

-degenarate
-universal
-non overlapping

Question 5

what does degenerate mean? and what is the advanatge of this?

Answer 5

-more than one triplet code can code for an amino acid
- the advanatge is that if there is a mutation and one nitrogenous base is changed, then the amino acid may stay the same

Question 6

what does universal mean?

Answer 6

each triplet code will code for the same amino acid in every organism

Question 7

what does non overlapping mean? and what is the advantage of this?

Answer 7

-each base is only in one triplet code
- the advanatage to this is that is only one amino acid base is altered due to mutation it will only effect one triplet, preventing harm

Question 8

what is an intron?

Answer 8

• does not code for polypeptides

Question 9

what is an exon?

Answer 9

• codes for amino acids

Question 10

what is a genome?

Answer 10

complete set of genes in a cell

Question 11

what is a proteome?

Answer 11

full range of proteins that a cell is able to produce

Question 12

why do proteomes constantly change?

Answer 12

it changes depending on what proteins are needed