Mendel's Laws, Inheritance, Enzymes, Photosynthesis, and Cellular Respiration

Vocabulary flashcards covering Mendel's laws of inheritance, enzyme kinetics and inhibition, the mechanisms of photosynthesis, and the stages of cellular respiration.

Mendel’s First Law (Law of Segregation)

The principle that traits are determined by allele pairs that separate during gamete formation so each gamete only receives one allele, followed by random fertilization.

Homozygous Dominant

A pair of two dominant alleles.

Heterozygous

A pair consisting of one dominant allele and one recessive allele.

Homozygous Recessive

A pair of two recessive alleles.

Simple Dominance

A pattern of inheritance where the dominant allele masks the recessive allele.

Incomplete Dominance

A pattern of inheritance where neither allele is dominant, resulting in a blended trait.

Codominance

A state where both alleles are expressed fully in the Heterozygous state.

Multiple Alleles

A condition where a gene has $3$ or more alleles, such as human blood alleles ($I^A$, $I^B$, $i$).

Sex linked traits

Disorders or traits controlled by a gene on the Sex Chromosome, usually the X-chromosome, such as Colorblindness and Hemophilia.

Autosomal Traits

Traits controlled by genes on the autosome, which can be dominant, recessive, codominant, or incompletely dominant.

Mendel’s Second Law of Independent Assortment

The rule that each pair of alleles segregates independently of other pairs during gamete formation due to Crossing Over and Independent Assortment.

Activation Energy

The minimum energy threshold needed for the formation or destruction of chemical bonds.

Induced Fit model

A model describing the strong and close bonding between a catalyst enzyme and a substrate.

Active site

A region on an enzyme that serves as a template for multiple reactants to align correctly for a reaction to occur.

Optimum temperature

The maximum temperature that benefits enzyme activity by increasing thermal energy and collisions before denaturation occurs.

Competitive Inhibition

A process where inhibitors prevent reactions by blocking the substrate from the Active Site; it can be overcome by increasing substrate quantity.

Non-competitive Inhibition

A process where inhibitors bind to the Allosteric Site, changing the enzyme's shape so the substrate cannot bond.

Chloroplasts

Organelles in plant cells where Photosynthesis occurs, containing the stroma, thylakoids, and granum.

Photolysis

The process in which water molecules release electrons into Photosystem II ($P680$) to enter the electron transport chain.

Chemiosmosis (Photosynthesis)

The process where protons cross the thylakoid membrane through $ATP$ synthase to temporarily produce $18$ $ATP$.

Calvin Cycle

The light independent reactions that use $ATP$, $NADPH$, and $CO_2$ to create $G3P$; it turns six times per Glucose molecule.

Rubisco

The enzyme that binds $3$ $CO_2$ to $3$ $RuBP$ ($5C$) during the Carbon Fixation stage of the Calvin Cycle.

Chlorophyll

Green pigments contained within the thylakoids that absorb light for photosynthesis, specifically optimally absorbing red and blue light.

Glycolysis

The first stage of Cellular Respiration occurring in the Cytoplasm, turning one Glucose ($6C$) into Pyruvate ($2C$) and $ATP$.

Substrate-level Phosphorylation

The 10th reaction of Glycolysis where the enzyme Pyruvate Kinase turns the substrates $PEP$ and $ADP$ into Pyruvate and $ATP$.

Fermentation

Anaerobic Respiration that regenerates $NAD^+$ by turning Pyruvate into either Ethanol (in plants and yeast) or Lactate (in animals).

Pyruvate Oxidation

The process in the Mitochondrial Matrix where Pyruvate ($3C$) loses a carbon to become an acetyl group ($2C$) and binds to Coenzyme A to form acetyl-CoA.

Citric Acid Cycle (Krebs Cycle)

A series of reactions in the Mitochondrial Matrix that breaks down Acetyl-CoA to produce $6$ $NADH$, $2$ $FADH_2$, and $2$ $ATP$.

Oxidative Phosphorylation

The final stage of aerobic respiration where an electron transport chain and chemiosmosis produce $32$ to $34$ $ATP$.

$O_2$ (in Respiration)

The final electron acceptor at the end of the electron transport chain, which combines with $H^+$ to form Water.