Molecular Biology Terms

Molecular Biology Terms

• Supercoiling: Higher level coiling of DNA that is already a complementary strand.
• Catenanes: Circular molecules of DNA may become interlocked during transcription or recombination.
• Open Reading Frame: Sequence of bases (either in DNA or RNA) that can be translated to give a protein.
• Constitutive Gene: Often have both their -10 and -35 region promoter sequences very close to consensus, which are repressed under rare conditions.
• Enhancer: Regulatory sequence inside, and often far away from, the promoter region that binds transcription factors.
• 5'-UTR: Region of an mRNA between the 5' end and the translation start site.
• Primary Transcript: The original RNA molecule obtained by transcription from a DNA template, before any processing or modification has occurred.
• Housekeeping Genes: Genes that are switched on some of the time because they are needed for essential life functions.
• Pribnow Box: Region of bacterial promoter 10 bases back from the start of transcription that is recognized by RNA polymerase.