GEN-3020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Dna Replication, Nucleoside
11 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
For a molecule to serve as the genetic material, it must exhibition four crucial characteristics: replication, storage of information, expression of information, and variation by mutation. Replication - once the genetic material replicates and is doubled in amount, it must then be partitioned through mitosis into daughter cells. Storage of information requires the molecule to act as a repository of information that may be expressed. Expression of stored genetic information is the underlying basis of information flow (transcription into translation). The central dogma of molecular genetics is (cid:862)dna (cid:373)akes rna (cid:373)akes protei(cid:374)s. (cid:863) Variability among organisms through mutation is the final characteristic. Genetic variation provides raw material for the process of evolution. Dna was first studied by a swiss chemist who isolated nuclei to derive dna which he called, nuclein. Four similar molecules called nucleotides are the basis for the tetranucleotide hypothesis. Nucleotides consist of a nitrogenous base, a sugar, and a phosphate group: purines.
