MOLECULAR GENETICS You Are Here*

molecular basis of inheritance

Genes ---> Enzymes ---> Metabolism (phenotype)
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology*
DNA -transcription--> RNA -translation--> Protein
Concept Activity -17.1 Overview of Protein Synthesis - INFORMATION

What is a GENE = ? a basic unit of heredity in a living organism

DNA is the genetic material...

- a segment of DNA that specifies a morphological trait

- a discrete piece of deoxyribonucleic acid

- linear polymer of repeating nucleotide monomers

nucleotides* --> A adenine, C cytosine
T thymidine, G guanine

yield --> a polynucleotide*

[ but what about, retroviruses, as HIV & TMV, which contain RNA ]
Technology with a Twist - Understanding Genetics
INFORMATION PROCESSING & the CENTRAL DOGMA

- the letters of the genetic alphabet... are the nucleotides A, T, G, & C of DNA
- the unit of information is CODON = genetic 'word'
a triplet sequence of nucleotides 'CAT' in a polynucleotide
3 nucleotides = 1 codon (word) = 1 amino acid in a polypeptide
- the definition of (codon) word = amino acid

- Size of Human Genome: ≈ 3,000,000,000 base pairs or 1.5b in single strand of DNA genes
≈ 500,000,000 possible codons (words or amino acids)
- average page your textbook = approx 850 words
thus, human genome is equal to 588,000 pages or 470 copies of bio text book
reading at 3 bases/sec it would take you about 47.6 years @ 8h/d - 7d/w
WOW... extreme nanotechnology
µ Mice & humans (indeed, most or all mammals including dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, & apes)
have roughly the same number of nucleotides in their genomes -- about 3 billion bp.
It is estimated that 99.9% of the 3billion n's of human genome is same person to person.
What makes us Human*? champ & human DNA differ by only 15 million bases