A gene is a section of DNA, that contains the instructions to make a specific protein.
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How do cells make proteins?
By stringing amino acids together in a particular order.
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How many different amino acids are there and what do they make up?
20 different amino acids are used to make up thousands of different proteins.
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What do each set of triplet bases code for?
A particular amino acid.
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What does DNA also determine?
Which genes are switched on or off, so which proteins the cell produces. This determines what type of cell it is.
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What do some of the proteins help to make?
All the other things that aren't made of protein from substances that come from your diet.
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What are proteins made by in the cell?
By organelles called ribosomes.
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What is found in the nucleus and why?
DNA is found in the nucleus and can't move out of it, as it is really big.
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What does the cell need to do? How is the action done?
Get information from the DNA in the ribosome in the cell cytoplasm. This is done using a molecule called mRNA, which is very similar to DNA, but shorter and only a single strand.
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What is mRNA?
mRNA is like a messenger between the DNA in the nucleus and the ribosome.
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What happens first? / What is TRANSCRIPTION?
The two DNA strands unzip. The DNA is used as a template to make the mRNA. Base pairing ensures it is complementary.
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What happens second?
mRNA molecules move out of the nucleus and joins with the ribosome.
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What happens third?
Amino acids that match the mRNA code are brought to the ribosome by molecules called tRNA.
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What happens lastly? / What is the job of the ribosome? / What is TRANSLATION?
The job of the ribosome is to stick amino acids together in a chain to make a polypeptide. This follows the order of the triplet of bases (called codons).
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What is the result of protein synthesis?
Each type of protein gets made with its own specific number and sequence of amino acids - the ones described by its DNA base sequence.
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What is a mutation?
A change to an organism's DNA base sequence. This could affect the sequence of amino acids in the protein, which could affect the shape of the protein and so its function. This could therefore affect the characteristics of an organism.
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What sort of mutations can there be?
Harmful, Beneficial or Neutral
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Harmful? (Mutation)
A mutation could cause a genetic disorder, for example cystic fibrosis.
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Beneficial? (Mutation)
A mutation could produce a new characteristic that is beneficial to an organism (e.g, a mutation in genes on bacterial plasmids can make them resistant to antibiotics)
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Neutral? (Mutation)
Some mutations are neither harmful nor beneficial (e.g, they don't affect a protein's function)
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
How do cells make proteins?
Back
By stringing amino acids together in a particular order.
Card 3
Front
How many different amino acids are there and what do they make up?
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