FERTILIZATION

What is fertilization?
Fertilization is the union of a human egg and sperm, occurring
in the ampulla of the fallopian tube. The result of this union
leads to the production of a zygote cell, or fertilized egg,
initiating prenatal development. Scientists discovered the
dynamics of human fertilization in the nineteenth century.
The process of fertilization involves a sperm fusing with an
ovum. The most common sequence begins with ejaculation
during copulation, follows with ovulation, and finishes with
fertilization. Various exceptions to this sequence are possible,
including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, external
ejaculation without copulation, or copulation shortly after
ovulation. Upon encountering the secondary oocyte, the
acrosome of the sperm produces enzymes which allow it to
burrow through the outer jelly coat of the egg. The sperm
plasma then fuses with the egg’s plasma membrane, triggering
the sperm head to disconnect from its flagellum as the egg
travels down the Fallopian tube to reach the uterus.
TRAIT
What is trait?
Trait, as related to genetics, is a specific characteristic of an
individual. Traits can be determined by genes, environmental
factors or by a combination of both. Traits can be qualitative
(such as eye color) or quantitative (such as height or blood
pressure). A given trait is part of an individual’s overall
phenotype.
When you think of the word traits, you might think of
personality traits like compassionate or a good sense of humor.
In genetics, traits are characteristics about humans and other
living organisms that can be described or measured. Traits can
be physical or behavioral.
DOMINANT
What is dominant?
Dominant refers to a relationship between two versions of a
gene. If one is dominant, the other one must be not dominant.
In that case, we call it recessive. A dominant gene, or a
dominant version of a gene, is a particular variant of a gene,
which for a variety of reasons, expresses itself more strongly
all by itself than any other version of the gene which the
person is carrying, and, in this case, the recessive. Now, it
usually refers to inheritance patterns frequently used in
conjunction with a Punnett square where, if an individual has
two versions of a gene, and one is observed to frequently be
transferred from one generation to another, then it is called
dominant.
MOLECULAR GENETICS
What is molecular genetics?
Molecular genetics, in particular, is a study of heredity and
variation at the molecular level. It is focused on the flow and
regulation of genetic information between DNA, RNA, and
proteins. Its sub-fields are genomics (i.e. the study of all the
nucleotide sequences, including structural genes, regulatory
sequences, and noncoding DNA segments, in the chromosomes
of an organism) and proteomics (i.e. the study of proteins from
DNA replication). The different techniques employed in
molecular genetics include amplification, polymerase chain
reaction, DNA cloning, DNA isolation, mRNA isolation, and so
on. Molecular genetics is essential in understanding and
treating genetic disorders. It is regarded as the most advanced
field of genetics. The Human Genome Project was a large
scientific research endeavor in molecular genetics. It began in
1990s and finished in 2003 with the intent of identifying the
genes and the sequences of chemical base pairs in human
DNA.
MENDEL
What is Mendel?
Mendelian inheritance refers to certain patterns of how traits
are passed from parents to offspring. These general patterns
were established by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, who
performed thousands of experiments with pea plants in the 19 th
century. Mendel’s discoveries of how traits (such as color and
shape) are passed down from one generation to the next
introduced the concept of dominant and recessive modes of
inheritance.
Mendelian Inheritance. This is one of those classic textbook
terms that any student in a basic genetics class will learn. In
textbooks, you often see pictures of plants or mice with certain
Mendelian traits. This became much more real to me when I
worked in a fruit fly lab in college and we were searching for
mutations that correlated with smooth or rough surfaces of
their eyes. We literally spent hours counting flies under the
microscope to carefully track the numbers of flies in each
category. Of course, it’s important to note that not every trait
is easily observable.
GENETIC CODE
What is genetic code?
Genetic code refers to the instructions contained in a gene that
tell a cell how to make a specific protein. Each gene’s code
uses the four nucleotide bases of DNA: adenine (A), cytosine
(C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) — in various ways to spell
out three-letter “codons” that specify which amino acid is
needed at each position within a protein. Genetic code. The
story of the genetic code is the story of biology and genetics in
the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, as well as its promises and its
perils. Oswald Avery in 1944, for example, proved that the
genetic code — that DNA —was indeed the carrier of hereditary
information, ending more than 80 years of productive
speculation. But as important as DNA was to the so-called
heroic era of molecular biology, spanning the generation of
scientific discovery after the Second World War, and as
important as DNA is to the revolutionary sciences of genetics
and genomics, neither genes nor DNA determine who you are
or what you shall do.
MITOSIS
What is mitosis?
Mitosis is the process by which a cell replicates its
chromosomes and then segregates them, producing two
identical nuclei in preparation for cell division. Mitosis is
generally followed by equal division of the cell’s content into
two daughter cells that have identical genomes.
Mitosis. We can think about mitosis like making a copy of an
instruction manual. Copy each page, then give one copy to
each of two people. In mitosis, a cell copies each chromosome,
then gives one copy to each of two daughter cells. With our
instruction manual example, it is really important that each
person gets one copy of every page. We don’t want to
accidentally give one person two copies of page four and one
person zero copies of page four. And the copies need to be
perfect. No misspellings, no deletions. Otherwise, we might not
be able to follow the instructions and things could go wrong.
This is also true with mitosis. We need each of our cells to
receive exactly one copy of each chromosome, and each copy
needs to be perfect, no mistakes, or the cells may have trouble
following the genetic instructions. Fortunately, our cells have
amazing systems to copy chromosomes almost perfectly and to
make sure that one copy goes to each daughter cell. Still, very
rarely mistakes in copying or dividing chromosomes are made,
and these mistakes can have negative consequences for cells
and for people.
ORGANELLE
What is organelle?
An organelle is a specific structure within a cell, and there are
many different types of organelles. Organelles are also called
vesicles within a cell. And they really have a function that’s
important, because we need to compartmentalize all the
functions within the cell. So there needs to be a membrane
around the mechanisms for making a different product within a
cell. So really, organelles are all membrane-bound. And they
separate one function from another function. So for example,
the mitochondrion has the function to produce energy, and the
lysosome has the function of producing small molecules from
large molecules, from breaking those things down. They need
to be compartmentalized because the mitochondrion all of its
pathways, all of its proteins and enzymes in it, to convert one
chemical to another, and the lysosome needs an acid pH. And if
those things were to mix, none of the functions would be
produced at all. So that really is the heart and soul of an
organelle: To be compartmentalized and allow a high
concentration of proteins or acid, or whatever to create that
environment so that a particular function can be performed.
MEIOSIS
What is meiosis?
Meiosis is a type of cell division in sexually reproducing
organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in
gametes (the sex cells, or egg and sperm). In humans, body
(or somatic) cells are diploid, containing two sets of
chromosomes (one from each parent). To maintain this state,
the egg and sperm that unite during fertilization must be
haploid, with a single set of chromosomes. During meiosis,
each diploid cell undergoes two rounds of division to yield four
haploid daughter cells — the gametes.
CODON
What is codon?
A codon is a DNA or RNA sequence of three nucleotides (a
trinucleotide) that forms a unit of genomic information
encoding a particular amino acid or signaling the termination of
protein synthesis (stop signals). There are 64 different codons:
61 specify amino acids and 3 are used as stop signals.
Codon. When people talk about the genetic code, they are
referring to the phenomenon of DNA containing an
informational code to create the proteins that an organism
needs to function. The DNA serves as a pattern for making
messenger RNA, and the messenger RNA then serves as a
pattern for making a specific protein. DNA and the
corresponding messenger RNA are made up of a series of
bases. In RNA, these bases are often labeled with the letters A,
U, C, and G. A set of three bases makes up a codon. The
messenger RNA contains many such codons, with a series of
three bases followed by three more bases, and then three more
bases, and so on.