Biology Master Vocabulary Words - Details

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Like DNA, is a nucleic acid that consists of a long chain of nucleotides.

RNA

The RNA molecules that carry copies of instructions for assembling amino acids into proteins.

Messenger RNA

Small organelles composed of two subunits and has as many as 80 different proteins.

Ribosomal RNA

The third type of RNA molecule transfers each amino acid to the ribosome as it is specified by the coded messages in mRNA.

Transfer RNA

Where most of the work of making RNA takes place as segments of DNA serve as templates to produce complementary RNA molecules.

Transcription

Binds to DNA during transcription and separates the DNA strands.

RNA Polymerase

Regions of DNA that have specific base sequences that are signals in the DNA molecules that show RNA polymerase exactly where to begin making RNA.

Promoter

The bits and pieces cut out that’s discarded while still in the nucleus of pre-mRNA molecules.

Intron

The remaining pieces of pre-mRNA that spliced back together to form the final mRNA.

Exon

Are proteins made from joined amino acids together into long chains.

Polypeptide

Are the components of RNA that forms a language of read three “letters” at a time, so that each “word” is three bases long and corresponds to a single amino acid.

Genetic Code

The letter words in mRNA.

Codon

Process of decoding an mRNA message into a protein.

Translation

Are the three unpaired bases in tRNA molecules.

Anticodon

The way in which DNA, RNA, and proteins are involved in putting genetic information into action in living cells.

Gene Expression

Are heritable changes in genetic information.

Mutation

Gene mutations that involve changes in one or a few nucleotides.

Point Mutation

The insertions and deletions of point mutations in which one base is inserted or removed from the DNA sequence.

Frameshift Mutation

Chemical or physical agents in the environment which change an organism’s genetic information.

Mutagen

The condition when an organism has extra sets of chromosomes.

Polyploidy

A group of genes that are regulated together and usually have related functions.

Operon

A regulatory region of the operon where lac repressor can bind to DNA.

Operator

The blocking of gene expression by means of a miRNA silencing complex.

RNA Interference

Process which cells become specialized in structure and function.

Differentiation

Set of master control genes that regulates organs that develop in specific part of the body.

Homeotic Gene

Code for transcription factors that activate other genes the are important in cell development and differentiation.

Homeobox Gene

Determine the identities of each segment of a fly’s body.

Hox Gene

Is the full set of genetic information that an organism carries in its DNA.

Genome

Shows the complete diploid set of chromosomes grouped together in pairs, arranged in order of decreasing size.

Karyotype

Are two of the 46 chromosomes in the human genome that determine an individual’s sex.

Sex Chromosome

The remaining 44 human chromosomes of the 46 human chromosomes

Autosome

Is a gene located on a sex chromosome.

Sex-linked Gene

Shows the presence or absence of a trait according to the relationships between parents, siblings, and offspring. It can be used for any species, not just humans.

Pedigree

Means, “not coming apart, the most common error in meiosis when homologous chromosomes fail to separate.

Nondisjunction

Enzymes produced by bacteria that cut DNA molecules into smaller pieces.

Restriction Enzyme

Technique used by scientists to separate and analyze the differently sized fragments cut by restriction enzymes

Gel Electrophoresis

A new field study in the key research areas of the Human Genome Project that combines molecular biology with information science. It is critical to studying and understanding the human genome.

Bioinformatics

The study of whose genomes, including genes and their functions.

Genomics

The process that allows only those animals with wanted characteristics to produce the next generation

Selective breeding

The process or technique of crossing dissimilar individuals to bring together the best of both organisms.

Hybridization

A technique used by breeders to maintain desirable characteristics in a line of organisms or continued breeding of individuals with similar characteristics

Inbreeding

The application of a technological process, invention, or method to living organisms.

Biotechnology

A technique used by biologist to make copies of gene.

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Technological process of joining together DNA from two or more sources to make it possible to change the genetic composition of living organisms.

Recombinant DNA

Small circular DNA molecules that are widely used in recombinant DNA.

Plasmid

Is a gene that makes it possible to distinguish bacteria that carry the plasmid from those that don’t.

Genetic Marker

Process by which organisms can be produced by the insertion of recombinant DNA into the genome of a host organism.

Transgenic

Is a member of a population of genetically identical cells produced from a single cell

Clone

Is the process of changing a gene to treat a medical disease or disorder. An absent or faulty gene is replaced by a normal, working gene.

Gene Therapy

Technology to study hundreds or even thousands of genes at once to understand their activity levels. DNA microarray is a glass slide or silicon chip to which spots of single-stranded DNA have been tightly attached.

DNA Microarray

Analyzes sections of DNA that may have little or no function but that vary widely from one individual to another.

DNA Fingerprinting

The scientific study of crime scene evidence.

Forensics

The process by which organisms have changed over time. The verb evolve means to change over time.

Evolution

The preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms.

Fossil

The process of farmers selecting only trees that produces the largest fruit or animals like cows to produce more milk. Over time this selective breeding would produce more trees with even bigger fruit and cows that give even more milk. In the process; nature provides the variations and humans select those they find useful.

Artificial Selection

Any heritable characteristic that increases an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in its environment.

Adaptation

Describes how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment.

Fitness

Is the process by which organisms with variations most suited to their local environment survive and leave more offspring.

Natural Selection

Is the study of where organisms live now and where they and their ancestors lived in the past.

Biogeography

Structures that are shared by related species and that have been inherited from a common ancestor.

Homologous Structure

Body parts that share common function, but not structure.

Analogous Structure

Are inherited from ancestors but have lost much or all of their original function due to different selection pressures acting on the descendant.

Vestigial Structure

All the genes, including all the different alleles for each gene, that are present in a population at any one time.

Gene pool

Number of that an allele occurs in a gene pool compared with the number of alleles in that pool for the same gene.

Allele frequency

Is the presence or absence of dark bands; trait controlled by only one gene that controls shell banding has two alleles.

Single-gene trait

Trait controlled by two or more genes.

Polygenic trait

Form of natural selection in which individuals at one end of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the curve.

Directional selection

Form of natural selection in which individuals near the center of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals at either end of the curve.

Stabilizing selection

Natural selection in which individuals at upper and lower ends of the curve have higher fitness than individuals near the middle of the curve.

Distributive selection

Random change in allele frequency causes by a series of chance occurrences that cause an allele to become more or less common in a population.

Genetic drift

A change in allele frequency following a dramatic reduction in size of a population.

Bottleneck

Change in allele frequencies as a result of the migration of a small subgroup of a population.

Founder effect

Situation in which allele frequencies in a population remain the same.

Genetic equilibrium

Principle that states that allele frequencies in a population remain constant unless one or more factors cause those frequencies to change.

Hardy-Weinberg principle

When individuals select mates based on heritable traits.

Sexual selection

Species

Formation of a new species.

Speciation

Separation of a species or population so that they no longer interbreed and evolve into two separate species.

Reproductive isolation

Form of reproductive isolation in which two populations develop differences in courtship rituals or other behaviors that prevent them from breeding.

Behavioral isolation

Form of reproduction isolation in which two populations are separated by geographic barriers such as rivers, mountains, or bodies of water, leading to the formation of two species.

Geographic isolation

Form of reproductive isolation in which two or more species reproduces at different times.

Temporal isolation

Method used by researchers that uses mutation rates in DNA to estimate to length of time that two species have been evolution independently.

Molecular clock

"classification system in which each species is assighned a two-part scientific name

Binomial nomenclature

Group of closly related species; the first part of the scientific name in binomial nomenclature

Genus

Study of the diversity of life and the evolutionary relationship between organisms

Systematics

Group or level of organization into which organisms are classified

Taxon

In classification, group of similar genera

Family

In classification, a group of closely related families

Order

In classification, a group of closely related orders

Class

In classification, a group of closely related classes

Phylum

Largest and most inclusive group in Linnaean classification

Kingdom

The evolutionary history of a lineage

Phylogeny

Evolutionary branch of a cldogram that includes a single ancestor and all its descendants

Clade

Group that consists of a single ancestral species and all its descendants and excludes any organisms that are not decended from hat common ancestor

Monophyletic group

Diagram depicting patterns of shared characteristics among species

Cladogram

Trait that appears in recent parts of a lineage, but not in its older members

Derived character

Larger, more inclusive taxonomic category than a kingdom

Domain

Domain of unicellular prokaryotes that have cell walls containing peptidoglycan; corresponds to the kingdom eubacteria

Bacteria

Domain consisting of unicellular prokaryotes that have cell walls that do not contain peptidoglycan; corresponds to the kingdom Arqueabacterias

Archaea

Domain consisting of all organisms that have a nucleus; includes protists, plants, fungi, and animals.

Eukarya

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