Unit 2 Genetics Vocabulary Terms and Definitions
Test Date: Friday October 23, 2015
Central Dogma:
The basic mechanism or chain of events of reading and expressing genes
that goes from DNA to RNA to Protein.
Traits: A genetically determined characteristic.
rRNA: Associates with proteins to form ribosomes in the cytoplasm.
Ligase: Any of a class of enzymes that catalyse the formation of covalent bonds and are
important in the synthesis and repair of biological molecules, such as DNA.
Ribosome:
The site of protein synthesis.
Nitrogenous Base:
One of the following: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, Uracil.
Nucleotides: The building blocks of DNA & RNA consisting of a five-carbon sugar, a
phosphate group, and a nitrogen-containing base.
Genetics:
The branch of biology that studies heredity, the passing of traits (characteristics)
from parents to offspring.
Deoxyribose: The five carbon sugar found in DNA.
Codon: The three-based code in DNA or mRNA
tRNA: Smaller segments of RNA nucleotides that transport amino acids to the ribosome.
Transcription: The synthesis of the mRNA from the template DNA.
Heredity:
The passing of traits from parents to offspring.
Semiconservation Replication:
The processes in which parental strands of DNA separate,
serve as templates, and produce DNA molecules that have one strand of parental DNA and one
strand of new DNA.
Double Helix: The shape of DNA that is often compared to a twisted ladder.
Base Pairs:
Chargaff’s Rule:
Rule stating that the bases in a nucleic acid always pair up in the same
way: A = T and G = C.
DNA Polymerase:
An enzyme that adds complementary nucleotides to the template strand of
the unzipped double helix until the entire molecule has been replicated.
Okazaki Fragments: The small segments of the lagging DNA strand.
mRNA:
DNA.
Long strands of RNA nucleotides that are formed complementary to one strand of
RNA Polymerase:
After DNA is unzipped in the nucleus, this is the enzyme that binds to a
specific section where an mRNA will be synthesized.
Translation:
assembled.
The process through which the mRNA attaches to the ribosome and a protein is
Ribose:
The five carbon sugar found in RNA.
Replication:
A process in which DNA has the unique ability to make an exact copy of itself
DNA Helicase:
An enzyme that breaks the hydrogen bonds holding the base pairs together
as it unwinds and unzips the double helix, allowing new nucleotides to bind to the 2 single
strands by base pairing.
Anticodon: A sequence of three nucleotides in a region of transfer RNA that recognizes a
complementary coding triplet of nucleotides in messenger RNA during translation by the
ribosomes in protein biosynthesis.