DNA

Monomer

Molecule that when repeated makes up a polymer. Amino acids are monomers of proteins. Nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids

Double helix

Shape of DNA molecule, due to coiling of the two sugar phosphate backbone strands into a right handed spiral configuration

Nucleotide

Molecule consisting of a five carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base

Polynucleotide

Large molecule containing many nucleotides

DNA polymerase

Enzyme that catalyses formation of DNA from activated deoxyribose nucleotides, using single stranded DNA as a template

Helicase

Enzyme that catalyses the breaking of hydrogen bonds between the nitrogenous pairs of bases in a DNA molecule

Semi conservative replication

How DNA replicates, resulting in two new molecules, each of which contains one old strand and one new strand. One old strand is conserved in each new molecule.

Gene

A length of DNA that codes fro a polypeptide or for a length of RNA that is involved in regulating gene expression.

Protein

Large polypeptide of 100 or more amino acids. However, the terms are often used synonymously, and insulin may be described as a small…

Transcription

The process of making messenger RNA from a DNA template

Translation

Formation of a protein, at ribosomes, by assembling amino acids into a particular sequence according to the coded instructions carried from DNA to the ribosome by mRNA

Polypeptide

A polymer made up of may amino acid units joined together by peptide bonds. Insulin is a _________ of 51 amino acids