Category: C

An organization that is cosponsored by the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank. The CGIAR is an association of 43 public and private donors that jointly support seventeen international agricultural research centers that are located primarily in developing countries. Twelve of the research…

Mutations (unplanned changes) that cause genes that are non-constitutive (have controlled protein expression) to become constitutive (in which state the protein is expressed all of the time).  

The inert state of permanently nonexpressed sequences, usually satellite DNA.  

Expressed as a function of the interaction of RNA polymerase with the promoter, without additional regulation. They are sometimes also called “household genes” in the context of describing functions expressed in all cells at a low level.  

Enzymes that are part of the basic, permanent enzymatic machinery of the cell. They are formed at a constant rate and in constant amounts regardless of the metabolic state of the organism. For example, enzymes that function in the production of cell-usable energy (such as ATP) might be good candidates. And this, in fact, is…

Consortia Microorganisms that interact with each other (or at least “coexist peacefully”) when growing together. An example of such interaction/coexistence would be bioleaching.  

The nucleotide sequence (within a DNA molecule) which gives the most common nucleotide at each position (along that sequence of that DNA molecule), for those instances (in certain organisms) where a (usually small) number of variations in nucleotide sequences can occur (e.g., for a given nucleotide sequence such as a promoter sequence). An idealized sequence…

A protein containing a metal or an organic prosthetic group, or both. For example, a glycoprotein is a conjugated protein bearing at least one oligosaccharide group. A protein that is chemically linked with a nonprotein molecule. Included are chromoproteins (e.g., hemoglobin); glycoproteins (e.g., mucin); lecithoproteins, nucleoproteins, and phosphoproteins (e.g., casein).  

The three-dimensional arrangement of substituent groups in a protein or other molecular structure that is free to assume different positions. The geometric form or shape of a protein in three dimensional space. The form or shape of a part, body, material, or molecule.  

The precisely regulated, sequential interaction of proteins (in the blood) that is triggered by a complex of antibody and antigen to cause lysis of infected cells. The triggering of lysis by multivalent antibody-antigen complexes is mediated by the classical pathway, beginning with the activation of CI, the first component (protein) of the pathway. This activation…