Chapter 1 Summary

SCI 231 Molecular Biology and Cell Biology

Heredity: the parent organism hands down information specifying
the characteristics that the offspring will have.
Gene: the segment of DNA sequence corresponding to a single
protein or set of alternative protein variants or to a single catalytic,
regulatory or structural RNA molecule.
Organotrophic: obtain energy by feeding on other living things or
the organic chemicals they produce.
Lithotrophic: capture their energy from energy-rich systems of
inorganic chemicals in the environment (rocks).

No gene is ever entirely new, but innovation can occur in several

ways:
1. Intragenic mutation: an existing gene can be randomly
modified my changed in its DNA sequence, mainly through
DNA replication errors.
2. Gene duplication: an existing gene can be accidentally
duplicated to create a pair of initially identical genes within a
single cell. These two genes may then diverge in the course of
evolution.

3. DNA segment shuffling: two or more existing genes break and

rejoin to make a hybrid gene consisting of DNA segments that
originally belonged to separate genes.
4. Horizontal (intercellular) transfer: a piece of DNA can be
transferred from the genome of one cell to that of another or
another species.

Orthologs: Genes in two separate species that derive from the

same ancestral gene in the last common ancestor of those species.
Paralogs: Related genes that have resulted from a gene duplication
event within a single genome and are likely to have diverged in
function.
Homologs: Genes that are related by descent in either way.

Horizontal gene transfer is very uncommon between different

species of eukaryotes, but very common between prokaryotes.
Many prokaryotes have a remarkable capacity to take up even
nonviral DNA molecules from their surroundings and thereby
capture the genetic information. In this way, genes that are resistant
to antibiotics can easily be transferred, giving the bacteria an
advantage.
Ciliates: carnivorous protozoans (single-celled eukaryotic cells that
eats others). Eg. Didinium.
Many genes that are missing from the mitochondrial or chloroplast
DNA are not lost, but have been moved from the symbiont genome
into the DNA of the host cell nucleus.
Natural selection has favored prokaryotes to have small genomes,
and eukaryotes to have large ones. Predators need to be bigger
than their prey. However, eukaryotes also have vastly more DNA
that does not code for protein (98.5% for humans, 11% of the
genome for E. coli).
Noncoding DNA can regulate the expression of adjacent genes. This
regulatory DNA allowed eukaryotes to evolve distinctive ways of
controlling when and where a gene is activated.
All cells have the same copies of the genome, yet many have
different functions and structures. The differences result from the
way in which the cells make selective use of their genetic
instructions according to the cues they get from their surroundings
in the developing embryo.
Many genes in the eukaryotic genome code for proteins that
regulate the activities of other genes. These transcription regulators
act by binding, directly or indirectly, to the regulatory DNA adjacent

to the genes that are to be controlled, or by interfering with the

abilities of other proteins to do so.
Haploid: containing a single copy of the genome.
Diploid: containing a double genome.
Meiosis: a reduction division (usually a diploid splitting into two
haploids).