Expanded List of Important Terms

In addition to the brief review of key terms we just covered, a number of other terms are commonly used in the field of molecular biology. An expanded list of terms is provided below. You can use the Entrez Books database to learn about the terms that were not covered in this module. A number of those books include online glossaries as well. For your convenience, direct links to some of those glossaries are provided in the Texts section of the references slide for this module.

Central Dogma of Biology
	DNA ->transcription-> RNA ->translation-> protein
	reverse transcription from RNA back to cDNA

Cell
	Prokaryotic, Eukaryotic

Nucleus

Chromosome

	  p arm, telomere
	  centromere
	  q arm, telomere

Extrachromosomal DNA
	Mitochondria
	Chloroplast
	Plastid

Genome
	karyotype
	spectral karyotype

DNA
	double helix
	complementary strands
	the two strands are called "plus" and "minus,"
		"positive" and "negative," or
		"Watson" and "Crick" strands
	antiparallel
	5' and 3'

Nucleotide
	Base Pair
	Nucleotide Base Codes (IUPAC abbreviations)

DNA Replication

Mitosis

Gene
	exons, introns (eukaryotes)
	alternative splicing

	Transcription from DNA (4 bases) --> RNA (4 bases)
		reverse transcription
		RNA: detailed view
		primary transcript
		splicing, mature mRNA
		alternative splicing

	Translation from mRNA (4 bases) --> protein (20 amino acids)
		codon - three mRNA bases code for a single amino acid
			start codon
			stop codon
		genetic code
			degenerate
			wobble hypothesis
		~20 genetic codes in GenBank
		reading frames

	Protein
		amino acid abbreviations (IUPAC)
		pattern
		domain/motif

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Gene Control
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regulatory region
promoter
transcription factor

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Gene Expression
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Gene Expression
	in different organs
	in different metabolic states or different stages in time
	at different stages of cell cycle
		(e.g., normal, precancerous, malignant)

Techniques for measuring gene expression
	ESTs, cDNA libraries
	SAGE
	Microarrays

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Genetic Variation
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mutations
polymorphisms
SNPs
insertions
deletions
inversions

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Structures
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Protein Structures
	primary structure
	secondary structure
		alpha helix
		beta strand; beta sheet
	tertiary structure
	quatenary structure

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Chromosomes
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chromosome structure
	p and q arms
	centromere
acrocentric chromosome
euchromatin
heterochromatin

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Genome Maps
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cytogenetic map (banding pattern; chromosome band numbers)
	  p arm, telomere
	  centromere
	  q arm, telomere

genetic map (scale: centiMorgan)

physical maps
	radiation hybrid map (scale: centiRay; cR)
	clone-based map (scale: ordinal)
	sequence map (scale: bp)

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Genome Sequence
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high throughput genomic sequence (HTGS)
	draft sequence (phase 0, 1, 2)
	finished sequence (phase 3)
genome assembly
genome annotation


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special types of sequence data
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characterized gene
EST, cDNA
STS
GSS
HTG (phase 0, 1, 2, 3)
HTC

vector
vector contamination

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Other
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pseudogene
paralog
ortholog
repeats
	SINE
	LINE

domain/motif
pattern

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molecule types
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genomic DNA (molecule type)
genomic RNA
mRNA
tRNA
snRNA
etc.

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lab techniques
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primer
PCR
clone
recombinant DNA
vector (various types, e.g., plasmids/BACs/YACs/cosmids/fosmids/etc.,
	and their corresponding insert sizes)
restriction enzyme
restriction map
SAGE
microarray

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fields of study
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molecular biology

bioinformatics
genomics
	comparative genomics
	pharmacogenomics
proteomics

clinical genetics
biotechnology