Structural Diversity of Genomes and Chromosomes

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on the structural diversity of genomes and chromosomes.

Genome Size

The totality of all the genetic material in a given organism.

Prokaryotes

Organisms with a single, circular chromosome attached to the cell membrane.

Eukaryotes

Cells that typically have multiple, linear chromosomes inside the nucleus.

Telomeres

Structures at the ends of linear chromosomes that protect them from degradation.

Centromeres

Regions of DNA that assemble kinetochores for chromosome movement during cell division.

Double-strand break

A type of DNA damage that activates repair pathways and can signal the cell cycle to arrest.

(SINEs and LINEs)

Types of interspersed repetitive DNA elements in the genome.

Short Sequence Repeats (SSRs)

Repetitive DNA sequences 2-5 base pairs in length.

Kinetochore

A protein complex assembled at the centromere that is essential for chromosome segregation.

Holocentric chromosomes

Chromosomes that assemble kinetochores along their entire length, as seen in some nematodes.

Genome assembly

The process of sequencing and reconstructing a genome from shorter DNA fragments.