Nucleic Acids, Protein Structure, and the Central Dogma

Vocabulary flashcards covering protein polarity, nucleic acid structures, nitrogen base pairing, and the central dogma of biology.

Nonpolar amino acids

Amino acids that tend to be found predominantly in the interior of proteins to limit disruption of the hydrogen bonding of surrounding water molecules.

Polar amino acids

Amino acids that face the outside of proteins, forming hydrogen bonds with one another and surrounding water molecules, or stay inside bonding with each other or the polypeptide backbone.

Nucleotides

The monomers of nucleic acids, consisting of a five-carbon sugar core, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen base.

Nucleic acids

Macromolecules made of nucleotides that provide instructions to make traits, contain genetic information for heredity, and are found in all foods derived from living things.

Phosphate group

A component of a nucleotide attached to the five-carbon sugar that binds to create the structural backbone of DNA or RNA.

Nitrogen base

The component of a nucleotide responsible for coding genes, consisting of adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine in DNA, with thymine replaced by uracil in RNA.

Uracil (U)

A nitrogen base with a slightly different chemical compound than thymine that is used exclusively in RNA.

Central dogma of biology

An idea first proposed in 1957 by Francis Crick stating that genetic information in living cells flows from DNA to RNA to make a functional protein product.

Francis Crick

The scientist who discovered the structure of DNA alongside James Watson and proposed the central dogma of biology in 1957.

Gene expression

The two-stage process consisting of transcription and translation by which DNA instructions are converted into a functional protein product.

Transcription

The process in the nucleus where information in double-stranded DNA is converted into a portable messenger RNA (mRNA) message.

Messenger RNA (mRNA)

A portable single-stranded RNA message that carries transcribed genetic information from inside the nucleus to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm.

Translation

The stage of gene expression where mRNA messages are read at the ribosomes in the cytoplasm to assemble specific amino acids into proteins.

Ribosome

A structure located in the cytoplasm that functions as the specific protein-building department of the cell during translation.

DNA replication

The transfer of genetic information pattern occurring from existing DNA to form new DNA.

Reverse transcription

The transfer of genetic information from RNA to make new DNA.