Biotechnology Unit 2 Vocab

Monomer

the repeating units that make up polymers

Polymer

a large molecule made up of many repeating subunits

Plasmid

a tiny, circular piece of DNA, usually of bacterial origin; often used in recombinant DNA technologies

R-plasmid

a type of plasmid that contains a gene for antibiotic resistance

Transformation

the uptake and expression of foreign DNA by a cell

Operon

a section of prokaryotic DNA consisting of one or more genes and their controlling elements

Vector

a piece of DNA that carries one or more genes into a cell; usually circular as in plasmid vectors

Promoter

the region at the beginning of a gene where RNA polymerase binds; the promoter “promotes” the recruitment of RNA polymerase and other factors required for transcriptionO

Operator

a region on the operon that can either turn on or off expression of a set of genes depending on the binding of a regulatory molecule

RNA polymerase

an enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of complementary RNA strands from a given DNA strand

Enhancer

a section nof DNA that increases the expression of a gene

Silencer

a section of DNA that decreases the expression of a gene

Transcription factors

molecules that regulate gene expression by binding onto enhancer or silencer regions of DNA and causing an increase or decrease

Intron

the region of a gene that is transcribed into an mRNA molecule but not expressed in a protein

Exon

the region of a gene that directly codes for a protein; it is the region of the gene that is expressed

Nonpathogenic

not known to cause disease

Gene therapy

the process of treating a disease or disorder by replacing a dysfunctional gene with a functional oneX

X-Ray crystallography

a technique used to determine the 3-dimensional structure of a protein

Denature

the process in which proteins lose their conformation or 3D shape

Bacillus

rod-shaped

Coccus

sphere, round shaped

Spirillum

spiral-shaped