Heredity

• DNA is an organic molecule
• DNA is found in every cell of the body
• DNA is found in the nucleus of the cell
• The purpose of DNA is to give instructions to the cell to make certain proteins which determine certain traits
• One molecule of DNA is condensed into a single chromosome
• DNA has a double helix structure
• Watson & Crick named their DNA molecule the double helix
• Building blocks of a DNA molecule are called nucleotides
• There are 3 sub-units of a nucleotide
• The backbone of the helix is made up of phosphate groups and deoxyribose sugars
• The rungs of the helix are made up of nitrogen bases
• The 4 letters representing the nitrogen bases of DNA are A, C, G, T
• If one side of the DNA strand is TAG TCA TGA AGT CTC, the complementary strand is ATC AGT ACT TCA GAG, and the mRNA strand is UAG UCA UGA AGU CUC.
• A codon is a segment of DNA that codes for the production of a specific protein
• A codon is made up of 3 nitrogen bases
• Transcription and translation are important DNA processes for protein synthesis
• The building blocks of proteins are amino acids
• Translation takes place at the ribosomes where mRNA is translated into proteins
• Contrast between DNA and RNA:

  • DNA: sugar is deoxyribose, 2 strands, nitrogen bases are A, C, G, T, found in nucleus
  • RNA: sugar is ribose, 1 strand, nitrogen bases are A, C, G, U, found in nucleolus
• Gregor Mendel is the Father of Modern Genetics
• Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants to yield his results
• If an organism has 2 of the same alleles for a trait, they are homozygous
• If an organism has 2 different alleles for a trait, they are heterozygous
• If you know an organism's phenotype, you do not necessarily know its genotype
• If you know an organism's genotype, you know its phenotype
• For the dominant phenotype to be expressed, one copy of a dominant allele is needed
• For the recessive phenotype to be expressed, two copies of a recessive allele are needed
• Hemophilia and color-blindness is a recessive, sex-linked trait
• The 4 types of inheritance patterns are Mendelian, Codominance, Sex-linkage, Incomplete Dominance
• Chromatin is the mixture of DMA And protein, that form the chromeremes found in the cells of living organisms.
• A chromatid is the singular rod-shaped segment of a chromosome