Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Any mechanism for correcting errors in nucleic acid synthesis that involves scrutiny of individual (chemical) units after they have been added to the (molecular) chain. This function is carried out by a 3′ to 5′ exonuclease, among others. Proof-reading dramatically increases the fidelity of the base pairing mechanism.  

Simple organisms that lack a distinct nuclear membrane and other organelles. Many structural systems are different between procaryotes and eucaryotes including the DNA arrangement, composition of membranes, the respiratory chain, the photosynthetic apparatus, ribosome size, the presence or lack of cytoplasmic streaming, the cell wall, flagella, the mode of sexual reproduction, and the presence or…

Defined by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “Establishing documented evidence which provides a high degree of assurance that a specific process will consistently produce a (pharmaceutical) product meeting pre-determined specifications and quality characteristics.”  

A short sequence deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is paired with one strand of the template DNA. It is the growing end of the DNA chain and it simply provides a free 3 ‘—OH end at which the enzyme DNA polymerase adds on deoxyribonucleotide units (monomers). Which deoxyribonucleotide is added is dictated by base pairing to…

The sequence of amino acids in a protein chain.  

The consensus sequence T-A-T-A-A-T-G centered about 10 base pairs before the starting point of bacterial genes. It is a part of the promoter and is especially important in binding RNA polymerase.  

Enzymatic processing of a polypeptide chain after its translation from its mRNA, i.e., addition of carbohydrate moieties to the protein or the removal of a portion of the polypeptide chain in order to produce a functional protein in the correct environment.  

The enzyme-catalyzed processing or structural modifications that RNAs such as mRNAs, rRNAs, and tRNAs must undergo before they are functionally finished products. For example, in eucaryotes a block of poly A containing at least 200 AMP residues is enzymatically attached to the 3′ end ofmRNA in the nucleus of the cell. The mRNAs with the…

Occurs in double-stranded cyclic DNA molecules having no breaks at all in either strand. If the double helix (of DNA) is wound further in the same direction as the winding of the two strands of the double helix molecule, then the circular duplex itself takes on superhelical turns. By analogy, supercoiling or superhelicity may be…

A separation technique; a technique to speed up the task of selecting, from thousands of laboratory specimens, the few cells with precisely the desired genetic changes induced (via genetic engineering). The thousands of genetically altered cells are brought about (produced) by genetic engineering experiments. Many genetic alterations are accomplished by injecting or flooding (specimen) cells…