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• DNA

  Genetic material that carries out two jobs: duplicate itself and control the development of the rest of the cell in a specific way

  
• Nuclein


  Acid substance with nitrogen and phosphorus, isolated by Friedrich Miescher in 1871

  
• Nucleic acid


  Later name for nuclein
• Transformation


  Conversion of one bacterial type into another, as termed by Frederick Griffith

  
• Transforming principle


  DNA, as determined by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty in 1944
• Genetic material


  DNA, as determined by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in 1953
• Phoebus Levine


  • Identified the 5-carbon sugars ribose in 1909 and deoxyribose in 1929
  • Revealed chemical distinction between RNA and DNA

  
• Nucleotide


  A single building block of DNA, composed of a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base

  
• Purines


  Adenine (A) and Guanine (G)

  
• Pyrimidines


  Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T)

  
• Phosphodiester bonds


  Bonds that form between the deoxyribose sugars and the phosphates, creating a continuous sugar-phosphate backbone
• Antiparallel configuration


  The opposing orientation (head-to-toe) of the two polynucleotide chains in the DNA double helix
• Complementary base pairs


  Adenine and Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine, held together by hydrogen bonds

  
• Chromatin


  The chromosome substance formed by DNA coiling around proteins called histones

  
• Nucleosome


  The "bead" part of the bead-on-a-string-like structure formed by DNA wrapping around histones

  
• Chromatid


  The highly condensed form of DNA
• Template strand


  The strand of the DNA double helix that is complementary to the RNA sequence
• Coding strand


  The nontemplate strand of the DNA double helix
• RNA


  The bridge between gene and protein
• Types of RNA


  • Messenger RNA (mRNA)
  • Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
  • Transfer RNA (tRNA)

  
• Codon


  Three mRNA bases that specify a particular amino acid
• Transcripts


  Certain mRNA molecules produced by differentiated cells, used to manufacture the encoded proteins

  
• Ribosomes


  Consist of two subunits that join during protein synthesis, providing structural support and catalyzing protein synthesis
• Central dogma


  The pattern of information that occurs most frequently in cells: DNA to DNA (replication), DNA to RNA (transcription), RNA to protein (translation)