BIO 113: Exam Review 4

Front

What is a pedigree in genetics?

Back

A pedigree is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance of phenotypes of a particular gene or organism and its ancestors, used to analyze the inheritance of traits.

Front

What does it mean for a mutation to be a 'frameshift' mutation?

Back

A frameshift mutation occurs when nucleotides are inserted or deleted from the DNA sequence, causing a shift in the reading frame of the genetic code.

Front

What are purines and which nucleotides are classified as purines?

Back

Purines are a type of nitrogenous base in DNA and RNA. The purines are adenine (A) and guanine (G).

Front

How is mRNA synthesized from a DNA template strand?

Back

mRNA is synthesized during transcription, where RNA polymerase reads the DNA template strand and creates a complementary RNA strand.

Front

What is the significance of the Hershey and Chase experiment?

Back

The Hershey and Chase experiment demonstrated that DNA is the genetic material by using radioactively labeled viruses to show that only DNA entered bacterial cells.

Front

What is a nonsense mutation?

Back

A nonsense mutation is a type of mutation that introduces a premature stop codon in the DNA sequence, leading to a truncated protein.

Front

What is the difference between a missense mutation and a nonsense mutation?

Back

A missense mutation results in a different amino acid being incorporated into a protein, while a nonsense mutation results in a premature stop codon.

Front

What is the role of the template strand in DNA transcription?

Back

The template strand serves as the guide for RNA polymerase to synthesize a complementary mRNA strand during transcription.

Front

What are the base-pairing rules in DNA?

Back

In DNA, adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T), and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C).

Front

What is the function of RNA polymerase?

Back

RNA polymerase is an enzyme that synthesizes RNA from a DNA template during the process of transcription.