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810 Chapter 26
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
oligonucleotide
3 to 10 nucleotides linked by phosphodiester groups.
phosphodiester
a species in which two of the OH groups of phosphoric acid have been converted
to OR groups.
polynucleotide
many nucleotides linked by phosphodiester groups.
primary structure
the sequence of bases in a nucleic acid.
pyrosequencing
an automated technique used to sequence DNA; it detects the identity of the base
that adds to the DNA primer.
recombinant DNA
DNA that has been incorporated into a host cell.
replication
the synthesis of identical copies of DNA.
replication fork
the position on DNA where replication begins.
restriction endonuclease
an enzyme that cleaves DNA at a specific base sequence.
restriction fragment
a fragment that is formed when DNA is cleaved by a restriction endonuclease.
ribonucleic acid (RNA)
a polymer of ribonucleotides.
ribonucleotide
a nucleotide where the sugar component is d-ribose.
ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
the structural component of ribosomes, the particles on which protein synthesis
takes place.
RNA splicing
the step in RNA processing that cuts out nonsense bases and splices informational
pieces together.
semiconservative replication
the mode of replication that results in a daughter molecule of DNA having one of
the original DNA strands in addition to a newly synthesized strand.
sense strand
the strand in DNA that is not read during transcription; it has the same sequence of
bases as the synthesized mRNA strand, except that the mRNA has Us in place of
the Ts in DNA.
stacking interactions
weak attractive forces between the mutually induced dipoles of adjacent pairs of
bases in DNA.
stop codon
a codon that signals “stop protein synthesis here.”
template strand
the strand in DNA that is read during transcription.
transcription
the synthesis of mRNA from a DNA blueprint.
transfer RNA (tRNA)
a single-stranded RNA molecule that carries an amino acid to be incorporated into
a protein.
translation
the synthesis of a protein from an mRNA blueprint.