Term | Definition |
Nucleotides | are small units, or monomers, that make up DNA |
Double helix | model, in which two strands of DNA wind around each other like a twisted ladder. |
Base pairing rules | Thymine (T) always pairs with adenine (A), and cytosine (C) always pairs with guanine (G). |
replication | A process by which DNA is copied during the cell cycle. |
DNA polymerases | Bond the new nucleotides together. |
central dogma | theory that states that, in cells, information only flows from DNA to RNA to proteins. |
RNA | or ribonucleic acid, is a chain of nucleotides, each made of a sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen-containing base. |
transcription | is the process of copying a sequence of DNA to reproduce a complementary strand of RNA. |
RNA polymerases | enzymes that bond nucleotides together in a chain to make a new RNA molecule. |
mRNA | is an intermediate message that is translated to form a protein. |
rRNA | forms part of ribosomes, a cell's protein factories. |
tRNA | brings amino acids from the cytoplasm to a ribosome to help make the growing protein. |
translation | is the process that converts, or translates, an mRNA message into a polypeptide. |
codon | is a three-nucleotide sequence that codes for an amino acid. |
stop codon | signals the end of the amino acid chain. |
anti codon | is a set of three nucleotides that is complementary to an mRNA codon. |
start codon | which signals the start of translation and the amino acid methionine. |