Key Terms

Transmission Genetics(aka Classical Genetics)

- Basic heredity; how things pass from one generation to the next
- Relation between chromosomes and heredity
- Arrangement of genes on chromosomes
- Gene mapping
- All focused on the individual organism(how its traits were inherited and how they
will then be passed on)

Molecular Genetics
- Chemical nature of a gene
- How genetic info is encoded, replicated, and expressed
- Includes replication, transcription, translation, and gene regulation
- Focus is genes themselves; structure, organization, and function

Population Genetics
- Explores the genetic composition of populations and how they change in time and space
- Evolution is a genetic change, therefore this subcategory is studying evolution
- Focuses on genes found in a population

Page 11/12 Bullet Points

● Cells are of two basic types

○ Eukaryotic - Has nucleus and membrane-bound organelles(i.e. mitochondria and
chloroplasts)
○ Prokaryotic - Lacks a nuclear membrane and don’t possess membrane-bound
organelles
● The gene is the fundamental unit of heredity
○ The way a gene is defined varied greatly depending on the context
■ Gene = unit encoding genetic characteristics, on the simplest level

● Genes come in multiple forms called alleles

○ e.g. Cat coat colours could be orange for one allele and black as another

● Genes confer phenotypes

○ Distinguishing between traits and genes is key in genetic study
■ Traits - Not directly inherited/are usually outwardly influenced(also known
as the phenotype)
● In the Hopi example, white hair and pale skin are phenotypes
■ Genes - Inherited and influenced by environmental effects; these
determine the expression of traits(also known as the genotype)
 ● In the Hopi example, the information carried on the OCA2 genes
causing albinism is the genotype

● Genetic information is carried in DNA and RNA

○ Molecular structure of genes are made of two types of nucleic acids
■ Deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)
● Double-stranded
■ Ribonucleic acid(RNA)
● Single-stranded
■ Nucleic acids are made up of nucleotides; repeating polymers that code
for each gene
● Each nucleotide contains a sugar, phosphate group, and a
nitrogenous base(which has four variants for each)
○ For DNA, they are adenine(A), cytosine(C), guanine(G),
and thymine(T)
○ In RNA, adenine, cytosine, and guanine are the same, but
thymine is replaced by uracil(U)
● DNA is the genetic carrier of choice for most organisms, but a few
viruses use RNA instead

● Genes are located on chromosomes

○ Chromosomes are the vehicles of genetic information within a cell
■ Consist of DNA and associated proteins
■ Each cell in each species has a set number of chromosomes
● i.e. Humans have 46, pigeons have 80, and bacterial cells usually
only have 1

● Replicated chromosomes separate through the processes of mitosis and meiosis

○ Both ensure the replication of cells is equal, and that the resulting offspring has a
complete set of chromosomes
■ Mitosis - Separation of somatic cell chromosomes and cell division
■ Meiosis - Pairing and separating of replicated chromosomes in sex cells
to produce gametes

● Genetic information is transferred from DNA to RNA to protein

○ Many genes encode characteristics by specifying protein structures
○ Genetic info is transcribed from DNA into RNA, and then translated from RNA
into a finished protein sequence

● Mutations are changes in genetic information that can be passed from cell to cell or from
parent to offspring
○ Gene mutations are only of a single gene, whereas chromosomal mutations alter
the shape of a chromosome and therefore affect many of the genes on the
chromosome
 ● Many traits are affected by multiple factors
○ A lot of traits are influenced by many kinds of genes in combination with
environmental factors
■ i.e. Human height is affected by genes as well as nutrition, which is not
genetic

● Evolution is genetic change

○ Can be viewed in two steps
1. Genetic variation
2. Some genetic variants increase while others decrease in frequencies

The Central Dogma of Genetics

- Explains the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to a finished protein
- DNA contains all the information needed to make all proteins, that RNA is the
messenger that carries that information, and that ribosomes are the “factories” in which
proteins are synthesized
- This process of synthesizing proteins from DNA is called gene expression
-