Genetics and Molecular Biology Terms

The letters record where it was found rather than what it does, and its real target is a fat, not a protein.

A protein that helps control many cell functions, including cell division and cell death.

A family of genes that may cause cancer when they are mutated (changed).

The lock a hormone, drug or nerve signal must fit before a cell will act on the message it carries.

Copying is never perfect, and the small rate of error is exactly what lets viruses and bacteria change over time.

Genetic information running backward along its usual route, from RNA into DNA, and the step HIV cannot do without.

The full chemical name behind the abbreviation RNA, covering every form the cell builds and not only the messenger kind.

The molecular machine that reads a genetic message three letters at a time and builds the protein it specifies.

Best known as the messenger between gene and protein, RNA also stores the genes of many viruses and regulates the cell directly.

A protein that is made by many different types of cells and is involved in processes that take place both inside and outside of the cell.

A protein that is made by many different types of cells and is involved in processes that take place both inside and outside of the cell.

An enzyme found in the liver and other tissues.

An enzyme found in the liver, heart, and other tissues.

How a message arriving at the cell surface is converted into action inside, growing louder at every step of the relay.

Relay races rather than single messengers: every handover amplifies the message and gives the cell another point at which it can intervene.

Millions of these single letter differences dot every genome, and only a small share change how a gene or its protein behaves.

A DNA change acquired during life in one ordinary body cell, passed to its descendants but never to a child.

A protein made by the body that stimulates the growth of many types of cells.

A type of radionuclide scan used to find carcinoid and other types of tumors.

This term names abnormal squamous cell changes on the cervix, graded as low or high grade depending on severity and extent.