Week 1 Molecular Genetics Flashcards
What is Darwin’s theory of evolution based on?
Survival of the fittest: species best adapted to their environment survive and reproduce.
What was Darwin’s incorrect hypothesis about heredity called?
Pangenesis – the idea that all parts of the body contribute to reproductive cells.
Who is known as the father of genetics?
Gregor Mendel.
What was Mendel’s main discovery?
Traits are inherited through discrete units (genes), and each parent contributes one unit.
What does the law of segregation state?
Each individual has two alleles for each gene, and these alleles segregate during gamete formation.
What are chromosomes?
Structures within cells that contain DNA and genes.
What did Walther Flemming discover?
The process of mitosis and chromosome behavior during cell division.
What is the Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory of inheritance?
Genes are located on chromosomes, which segregate and assort independently during meiosis.
What did Thomas Hunt Morgan demonstrate with fruit flies?
Genes are located on chromosomes and follow a linear order (linkage mapping).
What did Hermann Muller discover?
Mutations can be induced by X-rays, showing how new genes can appear.
What is the modern synthesis?
The integration of Darwin’s natural selection with Mendelian genetics.
What was Griffith’s experiment (1928)?
He discovered the ‘transforming principle’ that transfers genetic material between bacteria.
What did Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty prove in 1944?
DNA is the ‘transforming principle’ and the hereditary material.
What is Chargaff’s rule?
In DNA, the amount of adenine equals thymine and the amount of guanine equals cytosine.
What did Rosalind Franklin’s Photo 51 show?
The helical structure of DNA.
Who built the first accurate model of DNA?
Watson and Crick, using Franklin’s data, described the double helix structure.
What is the definition of a gene?
A gene is a functional and physical unit of heredity made of DNA, usually coding for a protein.
