1.S: Overview, DNA, and Genes (Summary)
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- Ying Liu
- City College of San Francisco
- Mendel demonstrated that heredity involved discrete, heritable factors that affected specific traits.
- A gene can be defined abstractly as a unit of inheritance.
- The ability of DNA from bacteria and viruses to transfer genetic information into bacteria demonstrated that DNA is the genetic material.
- DNA is a double helix made of two anti-parallel strands of bases on a sugar-phosphate backbone.
- Specific bases on opposite strands pair through hydrogen bonding, ensuring complementarity of the strands.
- The Central Dogma explains how DNA dictates heritable traits.
- Not all DNA in an organism contains genes.
- Model organisms accelerate the use of genetics in basic and applied research in biology, agriculture and medicine.
Key Terms
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blending inheritance particulate inheritance Mendel gene allele trait P, F1, F2 Griffith Avery, MacLeod, & McCarty Hershey and Chase Meselson & Stahl DNase proteinase 35 S 32 P bacteriophage semi-conservative conservative dispersive E. coli Nitrogen-14 Nitrogen-15 |
heavy vs light CsCl gradient Beadle & Tatum auxotroph prototroph metabolic pathway Neurospora crassa Chargaff’s Rules Watson and Crick DNA bases sugar-phosphate backbone anti-parallel complementary hydrogen bond minor groove major groove adenine cytosine thymine guanine Central Dogma transcription reverse transcription |
translation RNA prion one-gene:one-enzyme minimal medium complete medium arginine genetic screen nuclear genome c-value paradox model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae Caenorhabditis elegans Drosophila melanogaster Mus musculus Danio rerio Arabidopsis thaliana Escherichia coli |