GENE2230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Messenger Rna, Dna Replication, Reverse Transcriptase
Document Summary
Dna is inherited from both of our parents. Watson and crick discovered this dogma ie. the flow of information. Dna can be synthesized and used as a template during replication. Sequences can be read in mrna in 3 sets (codons) for the encoding of amino acids. Some viruses can go through reverse transcription, which uses mrna as a template instead of dna to make cdna. Dna was defined as the hereditary material using a simple experiment involving bacteriophages (as translated in latin, "bacteria-eaters") Bacteriophages are viruses and therefore structurally are made up of only an inner core of dna and an outer core of proteins. Phosphorus was found in the pellet, which indicated that dna was found inside the bacteria. Sulfur was found in the supernatant, which indicated that proteins were found outside the bacteria. Conclusion : dna, and not protein, was the genetic material inherited. Some viruses use rna as their genetic material instead of dna.
