Chapter 10 - Molecular biology of the gene. The main contents of this chapter include all of the following: The structure of the genetic material, DNA replication, the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein, microbial genetics. | Chapter 10 Molecular Biology of the Gene 0 Viruses infect organisms by binding to receptors on a host’s target cell, injecting viral genetic material into the cell, and hijacking the cell’s own molecules and organelles to produce new copies of the virus. The host cell is destroyed, and newly replicated viruses are released to continue the infection. 0 Introduction © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Viruses are not generally considered alive because they are not cellular and cannot reproduce on their own. Because viruses have much less complex structures than cells, they are relatively easy to study at the molecular level. For this reason, viruses are used to study the functions of DNA. 0 Introduction © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Figure Chapter 10: Big Ideas The Structure of the Genetic Material DNA Replication The Genetics of Viruses and Bacteria The Flow of Genetic Information from DNA to RNA to Protein Figure Chapter 10: Big Ideas Figure Figure | Chapter 10 Molecular Biology of the Gene 0 Viruses infect organisms by binding to receptors on a host’s target cell, injecting viral genetic material into the cell, and hijacking the cell’s own molecules and organelles to produce new copies of the virus. The host cell is destroyed, and newly replicated viruses are released to continue the infection. 0 Introduction © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Viruses are not generally considered alive because they are not cellular and cannot reproduce on their own. Because viruses have much less complex structures than cells, they are relatively easy to study at the molecular level. For this reason, viruses are used to study the functions of DNA. 0 Introduction © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Figure Chapter 10: Big Ideas The Structure of the Genetic Material DNA Replication The Genetics of Viruses and Bacteria The Flow of Genetic Information from DNA to RNA to Protein Figure Chapter 10: Big Ideas Figure Figure Herpesvirus THE STRUCTURE OF THE GENETIC MATERIAL © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: Experiments showed that DNA is the genetic material Until the 1940s, the case for proteins serving as the genetic material was stronger than the case for DNA. Proteins are made from 20 different amino acids. DNA was known to be made from just four kinds of nucleotides. Studies of bacteria and viruses ushered in the field of molecular biology, the study of heredity at the molecular level, and revealed the role of DNA in heredity. 0 © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: Experiments showed that DNA is the genetic material In 1928, Frederick Griffith discovered that a “transforming factor” could be transferred into a bacterial cell. He found that when he exposed heat-killed pathogenic bacteria to harmless bacteria, some harmless bacteria were converted to disease-causing bacteria and the disease-causing characteristic was inherited by descendants .
