Vocabulary Terms
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| 1201804839 | operator | In bacterial DNA, a sequence of nucleotides near the start of an operon to which an active repressor can attach. | 0 | |
| 1201804840 | operon | A unit of genetic function found in bacteria and phages, consisting of a promoter, an operator, and a coordinately regulated cluster of genes whose products function in a common pathway. | 1 | |
| 1201804841 | repressor | A protein that inhibits gene transcription. In prokaryotes, repressors bind to the DNA in or near the promoter. | 2 | |
| 1201804842 | regulatory gene | A gene that codes for a protein, such as a repressor, that controls the transcription of another gene or group of genes. | 3 | |
| 1201804843 | corepressor | A small molecule that binds to a bacterial repressor protein and changes its shape, allowing it to switch an operon off. | 4 | |
| 1201804844 | inducer | A specific small molecule that binds to a bacterial repressor protein and changes the repressor's shape so that it cannot bind to an operator, thus switching an operon on | 5 | |
| 1201804845 | cylic AMP (cAMP) | Cylic adenosine monophosphate, a ring-shaped molecule made from ATP that is common intracellular signaling molecule (second messenger) in eukaryotic cells. It is also a regulator of some bacterial operons | 6 | |
| 1201804846 | activator | A protein that binds to DNA and stimulates gene transcription. In prokaryotes, they bind in or near the promotoer; in eukaryotes, they bind to control elements in enhancers | 7 | |
| 1201804847 | differential gene expression | The expression of different sets of genes by cells with the same genome | 8 | |
| 1201804848 | genomic imprinting | A phenomenon in which expression of an allele in offspring depends on whther the allele is inherited from the male or female parent | 9 | |
| 1201804849 | epigenetic inheritance | Inheritance of traits transmitted by mechanisms not directly involving the nucleotide sequence of a genome | 10 | |
| 1201804850 | control elements | A segment of noncoding DNA that helps regulate transcription of a gene by binding a transcription factor. Multiple control elements are present in a eukaryotic gene's enchancer. | 11 | |
| 1201804851 | enhancer | A segment of eukaryotic DNA containing multiple control elements, usually located far from the gene whose transcription it regulates | 12 | |
| 1201804852 | alternative RNA splicing | A type of eukaryotic gene regularion 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 | 13 | |
| 1201804853 | proteasome | A giant protein complex that recognizes and destorys proteins tagged for elimination by the small protein ubiquitin | 14 | |
| 1201804854 | microRNA (miRNAs) | A small, single-stranded RNA molecule, generated from a hairpin structure on a precursor RNA transcribed from a particular gene. | 15 | |
| 1201804855 | RNA interference (RNAi) | A technique used to silence the expression of selected genes. Uses synthetic double-stranded RNA molecules that match the sequence of a particular gene to trigger the breakdown of the gene's messenger RNA. | 16 | |
| 1201804856 | small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) | A small, single-stranded RNA molecule generated by cellular machinery from a long, double-stranded RNA molecule. Associates with one or more proteins in a complex that can degrade or prevent translation of an mRNA with a complementary sequence. In some cases, it can also block transcription by promoting chormatin modification | 17 | |
| 1201804857 | cell differentiation | The structural and functional divergence of cells as they become specialized during a multicellular organism's development. Depends on the control of gene expression. | 18 | |
| 1201804858 | morphogenesis | The development of body shape and organization | 19 | |
| 1201804859 | cytoplasmic determinant | A maternal substance, such as a protein or RNA, placed into an egg that influences the course of early develoment by regulating the expression of genes that affect the developmental fate of cells. | 20 | |
| 1201804860 | induction | The process in which one group of embryonic cells influences the development of another, usually by causing changes in gene expression. | 21 | |
| 1201804861 | determination | The progressive restriction of developmental potential in which the possible fate of each cell becomes more limited as an embryo develops. At the end of determination, a cell is committed to its fate. | 22 | |
| 1201804862 | pattern formation | The development of a multicellular organism's spatial organization, the arrangement of organs and tissues in their characteristic places in three-dimensional space | 23 | |
| 1201804863 | positional information | Molecular cues that control pattern formation in an animal or plant embryonic structure by indicating a cell's location relative to the organism's body axes. These cues elicit a response by genes that regulate development. | 24 | |
| 1201804864 | homeotic gene | Any of the master regulatory genes that control placement and spatial organization of body parts in animals, plants, and fugi by controlling the developmental fate of groups of cells. | 25 | |
| 1201804865 | embryonic lethals | A mutation with a phenotype leading to death of an embryo or larva | 26 | |
| 1201804866 | maternal effect gene | A gene that, when mutant in the mother, results in a mutant phenotype, in the offspring, regardless of the offspring's genotype. Maternal effect genes were the first identified in "Drosophila" | 27 | |
| 1201804867 | egg-polarity genes | A gene that helps control the orientation (polarity) of the egg; also called a maternal effect gene. | 28 | |
| 1201804868 | morphogen | A substance, such as Bicoid protein in "Drosophila", that provides positional information in the form of a concentration gradient along an embryonic axis. | 29 |
