NEUR 1201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Gene Expression, Thymine, Cell Signaling
Document Summary
Molecular biology: introduction, by the early 20th century, living tissue was taken to consist largely of three different materials: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, proteins are by far the most complex molecules in our body. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, and receive one per pair from each parent: like proteins, dna is a chain of simple molecules. There are four nucleotide bases that can make up dna: adenine (a, thymine (t, guanine (g, cytosine (c, unlike proteins, dna can be copied. This allows for cell division and reproduction: genes are segments of dna that code for particular proteins, so genes are like recipes for proteins. After all, proteins have 20 amino acids to choose from, but dna only has 4 nucleotide bases to encode that information: genes are organized into codons. Relapse: chronic cocaine administration, reconfigures acetyl and methyl tags.