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Vocab Ch.14
Honors Biology Ch.14 Vocab
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| 5' cap | A modified form of guanine nucleotide added onto the end of a pre-mRNA molecule. |
| A site | One of a ribosome’s three binding sites for tRNA during translation. The A site holds the tRNA carrying the next amino acid to be added to the polypeptide chain. (A stands for aminoacyl tRNA.) |
| Alternative RNA Splicing | A type of eukaryotic gene regulation at the RNA-processing level in which different mRNA molecules are produced from the same primary transcript, depending on which RNA segments are treated as exons and which as introns. |
| Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase | An enzyme that joins each amino acid to the appropriate tRNA. |
| Anticodon | A nucleotide triplet at one end of a tRNA molecule that base-pairs with a particular complementary codon on an mRNA molecule. |
| Codon | A three-nucleotide sequence of DNA or mRNA that specifies a particular amino acid or termination signal; the basic unit of the genetic code |
| Deletion | A mutational loss of one or more nucleotide pairs from a gene |
| E site | One of a ribosome’s three binding sites for tRNA during translation. The E site is the place where discharged tRNAs leave the ribosome. (E stands for exit.) |
| Exon | A sequence within a primary transcript that remains in the RNA after RNA processing; also refers to the region of DNA from which this sequence was transcribed. |
| Frameshift mutation | A mutation occurring when nucleotides are inserted in or deleted from a gene and the number inserted or deleted is not a multiple of three, resulting in the improper grouping of the subsequent nucleotides into codons. |
| Gene expression | The process by which information encoded in DNA directs the synthesis of proteins or, in some cases, RNAs that are not translated into proteins and instead function as RNAs. |
| Insertion | A mutation involving the addition of one or more nucleotide pairs to a gene. |
| Intron | A noncoding, intervening sequence within a primary transcript that is removed from the transcript during RNA processing; also refers to the region of DNA from which this sequence was transcribed |
| messenger RNA (mRNA) | A type of RNA, synthesized using a DNA template, that attaches to ribosomes in the cytoplasm and specifies the primary structure of a protein. |
| missense mutation | A nucleotide-pair substitution that results in a codon that codes for a different amino acid. |
| mutagen | A chemical or physical agent that interacts with DNA and can cause a mutation. |
| mutation | A change in the nucleotide sequence of an organism’s DNA or in the DNA or RNA of a virus. |
| nonsense mutation | A mutation that changes an amino acid codon to one of the three stop codons, resulting in a shorter and usually nonfunctional protein. |
| nucleotide-pair substitution | A type of point mutation in which one nucleotide in a DNA strand and its partner in the complementary strand are replaced by another pair of nucleotides. |
| P site | One of a ribosome’s three binding sites for tRNA during translation. The P site holds the tRNA carrying the growing polypeptide chain. (P stands for peptidyl tRNA.) |
| point mutation | A change in a single nucleotide pair of a gene |
| poly-A-tail | A sequence of 50 to 250 adenine nucleotides added onto the 3' end of a pre-mRNA molecule. |
| primary transcript | An initial RNA transcript from any gene; also called pre-mRNA when transcribed from a protein-coding gene. |
| promoter (TATA box) | A DNA sequence in eukaryotic promoters crucial in forming the transcription initiation complex. |
| reading frame | On an mRNA, the triplet grouping of ribonucleotides used by the translation machinery during polypeptide synthesis. |
| ribosomal RNA (rRNA) | RNA molecules that, together with proteins, make up ribosomes; the most abundant type of RNA. |
| ribosome | A complex of rRNA and protein molecules that functions as a site of protein synthesis in the cytoplasm; consists of a large subunit and a small subunit. In eukaryotic cells, each subunit is assembled in the nucleolus. |
| RNA Polymerase | An enzyme that links ribonucleotides into a growing RNA chain during transcription, based on complementary binding to nucleotides on a DNA template strand. |
| RNA processing | Modification of RNA primary transcripts, including splicing out of introns, joining together of exons, and alteration of the 5′ and 3′ ends. |
| silent mutation | A nucleotide-pair substitution that has no observable effect on the phenotype; for example, within a gene, a mutation that results in a codon that codes for the same amino acid. |
| spliceosome | A large complex made up of proteins and RNA molecules that splices RNA by interacting with the ends of an RNA intron, releasing the intron and joining the two adjacent exons. |
| template strand | The DNA strand that provides the pattern, or template, for ordering, by complementary base pairing, the sequence of nucleotides in an RNA transcript. |
| terminator | In bacteria, a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that marks the end of a gene and signals RNA polymerase to release the newly made RNA molecule and detach from the DNA. |
| transcription | The synthesis of RNA using a DNA template. |
| transcription factor | A regulatory protein that binds to DNA and affects transcription of specific genes. |
| transcription initiation complex | The completed assembly of transcription factors and RNA polymerase bound to a promoter. |
| transcription unit | A region of DNA that is transcribed into an RNA molecule. |
| Transfer RNA (tRNA) | An RNA molecule that functions as a translator between nucleic acid and protein languages by picking up a specific amino acid and carrying it to the ribosome, where the tRNA recognizes the appropriate codon in the mRNA. |
| Translation | The synthesis of a polypeptide using the genetic information encoded in an mRNA molecule. There is a change of “language” from nucleotides to amino acids. |
| Triplet code | A genetic information system in which a series of three-nucleotide-long words specifies a sequence of amino acids for a polypeptide chain. |
| Wobble | Flexibility in the base-pairing rules in which the nucleotide at the 5' end of a tRNA anticodon can form hydrogen bonds with more than one kind of base in the third position (3' end) of a codon. |