Chapter 2

An Introduction to Genes and

Genomes
Chapter 2 Contents

■ Compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells

■ Discuss experiments that determined that DNA is the inherited
genetic material of living organisms
■ Describe the structure of a nucleotide and explain how they form
double-helical DNA molecules
■ DNA Replication
■ Transcription
■ Translation
1 A Review of Cell Structure
• Structural and functional unit of life
• Humans have approximately 75 trillion cells and over 200 different
cell types
• Cells vary greatly in size
• DNA is the common component in all cell types
• Genes control numerous activities
• Genes influence our behavior; determine our physical appearance,
such as skin, hair, and eye color; and affect our susceptibility to
genetic disease conditions
Structure of prokaryotic cell
Plant and Animal Cells
DNA as the genetic material: Evidence

Griffith’s Transformation
Experiment
Continued.
• In 1944, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty purified
DNA from large batches of S. pneumonia grown in liquid culture
• They ground up (homogenized) mixtures of bacterial cells from S.
pneumoniae and treated these extracts with proteases, RNA-
degrading enzymes ( RNase ), or DNA-degrading enzymes ( DNase )
• Extracts from killed S cells were mixed with living R cells and injected
into mice
• This experiment demonstrated that DNase-treated extracts could not
transform R cells to S cells because DNA in these mixtures was
degraded by DNase
DNA Structure
• Nucleoside: Pentose Sugar and a nitrogenous base (A, T, G, C)
• Nucleotide: Each nucleotide is composed of a (five-carbon) pentose
sugar called deoxyribose, a phosphate molecule, and a nitrogenous
base (Nucleoside + Phosphate molecule)
DNA Is a Double-Stranded
Helix (a) Two strands of
nucleotides are
joined together by hydrogen
bonds between complementary
base pairs. Adenine bases
(A) always base pair with
thymine bases (T), and cytosine
(C) base pairs with guanine
(G). (b) The two strands wrap
around each other so that the
overall structure of DNA is
a double-stranded helix with a
sugar-phosphate “backbone,” in
which the bases are
aligned in the center of the helix.
What Is a Gene?
• A gene is a sequence of nucleotides that provides cells with the
instructions to synthesize a specific protein or a particular type of RNA
• Often described as “a unit of inheritance”
• Not all genes are used to produce a protein e.g. genes for transfer
RNA (tRNA) are used to make tRNA molecules
• Eye color, skin color & other traits are inherited from parents through
DNA