Molecular Genetics

Molecular Genetics

Mendel’s  theory  dispelled  the  mystery of why traits seemed to appear and disappear magically from one generation to the next. Mendel’s work reveals the patterns of heredity and reflect the transmission of evolved information from parents to offspring. This information is located on the chromosomes. One of the most advanced realizations of human  knowledge  was  that  our  unique characteristics are encoded within molecules of DNA. The discovery that DNA is the genetic material left several questions unanswered. How is the information in DNA used? Scientists now know that DNA directs the construction of proteins. Proteins determine the shapes of cells and the rate of chemical reactions, such as those that occur during metabolism and photosynthesis. The hereditary nature of every living organism is defined by its genome, which consists of a long sequence of nucleic acids that provide the information needed to construct the organism. The genome contains the complete set of hereditary information for any organism. The genome may be divided into a number of different nucleic acid molecules. Each of the nucleic acid molecule may contain large number of genes. Each gene is a sequence within the nucleic acid that represents a single protein. In this chapter we will discuss the structure of DNA, its replication, the process of making RNA from DNA (transcription), the genetic code that determines the sequence of amino acid in protein synthesis (translation), regulation of gene expression and the essentials of human genome sequencing.