Question: What can coding regions be split into?
Answer: several exons

Question: What do some viruses store their genome in instead of DNA?
Answer: RNA

Question: What are some gene products?
Answer: functional non-coding RNAs

Question: What is a broad, modern working definition of a gene?
Answer: any discrete locus of heritable, genomic sequence which affect an organism's traits by being expressed as a functional product

Question: Who first suggested the existence of discrete inheritable units?
Answer: Gregor Mendel (1822–1884)

Question: If a distinct trait in edible pea plants is mathematically described as a 2n combination, what does n represent? 
Answer: n is the number of differing characteristics in the original peas

Question: What is one thing that Gregor Mendel was the first to demonstrate?
Answer: independent assortment

Question: What is another thing that Gregor Mendel was the first to demonstrate?
Answer: the distinction between dominant and recessive traits

Question: What did Gregor Mendel explain his results in terms of?
Answer: discrete inherited units that give rise to observable physical characteristics

Question: What was the dominant theory of heredity prior to Mendel's work?
Answer: one of blending inheritance

Question: Who developed the theory of inheritance known as pangenesis?
Answer: Charles Darwin

Question: What does the term gemmule describe?
Answer: hypothetical particles that would mix during reproduction

Question: What year was Mendel's work first published?
Answer: 1866

Question: Who are the three scientists that claimed to have reached conclusions similar to Mendel's?
Answer: Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, and Erich von Tschermak

Question: What ancient Greek word is the word 'gene' derived from?
Answer: γένος (génos)

Question: What does the ancient Greek word 'génos' mean?
Answer: "race, offspring"

Question: What Danish botanist coined the word 'gene'?
Answer: Wilhelm Johannsen

Question: What was the word 'gene' used to describe in 1909?
Answer: the fundamental physical and functional unit of heredity

Question: Who first used the word 'genetics' in 1905?
Answer: William Bateson

Question: What was shown to be the molecular repository of genetic information by experiments in the 1940s to 1950s?
Answer: Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Question: Who studied the structure of DNA using x-ray crystallography?
Answer: Rosalind Franklin

Question: What two scientists published a model of the double stranded DNA molecule?
Answer: James D. Watson and Francis Crick

Question: What is one exception to the central dogma of molecular biology?
Answer: reverse transcription in retroviruses

Question: What is the modern study of genetics at the level of DNA known as?
Answer: molecular genetics

Question: When was the first sequence of a gene determined?
Answer: In 1972

Question: What was the first gene to be sequenced?
Answer: the gene for Bacteriophage MS2 coat protein

Question: Who developed chain termination DNA sequencing in 1977?
Answer: Frederick Sanger

Question: What did the devlopment of the chain termination DNA sequencing method do for the sequencing process?
Answer: improved the efficiency of sequencing and turned it into a routine laboratory tool.

Question: What project used an automated version of the Sanger method in its early stages?
Answer: the Human Genome Project

Question: In what time span were the theories to integrate molecular genetic with Darwinian evolution developed?
Answer: the 1930s and 1940s

Question: What are the theories that integrate molecular genetics with Darwinian evolution called?
Answer: the modern evolutionary synthesis

Question: Who proposed an evolutionary concept of the gene as a unit of natural selection?
Answer: George C. Williams

Question: What is the definition of the concept of the gene as a unit of natural selection?
Answer: "that which segregates and recombines with appreciable frequency."

Question: Who popularized ideas emphasizing the centrality of genes in evolution?
Answer: Richard Dawkins

Question: What do the vast majority of living organisms encode their genes in?
Answer: long strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

Question: What does DNA consist of?
Answer: a chain made from four types of nucleotide subunits

Question: What type of sugar composes part of the DNA molecule?
Answer: a five-carbon sugar (2'-deoxyribose)

Question: What are the four bases used in nucleotide subunits?
Answer: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine

Question: Besides the sugar and the four bases, what else does DNA consist of?
Answer: a phosphate group

Question: What is the backbone of a DNA double helix made of?
Answer: phosphate-sugar

Question: What base pairs with thymine?
Answer: adenine

Question: What base does guanine pair with?
Answer: cytosine

Question: What causes the specificity of base pairing?
Answer: adenine and thymine align form two hydrogen bonds, whereas cytosine and guanine form three hydrogen bonds

Question: Due to the cause of the specificity of base pairing, what must be true of the two strands in a double helix?
Answer: The two strands in a double helix must therefore be complementary

Question: What causes the directionality of DNA strands?
Answer: the chemical composition of the pentose residues of the bases

Question: What is known as the 3' end?
Answer: an exposed hydroxyl group on the deoxyribose

Question: What is known as the 5' end?
Answer: an exposed phosphate group

Question: What type of synthesis occurs in the 5'→3' direction?
Answer: Nucleic acid synthesis

Question: Why does DNA replication and transcription occur in the 5'→3' direction?
Answer: because new nucleotides are added via a dehydration reaction that uses the exposed 3' hydroxyl as a nucleophile

Question: How does the expression of genes encoded in DNA begin?
Answer: by transcribing the gene into RNA

Question: What is RNA?
Answer: a second type of nucleic acid that is very similar to DNA

Question: What base does RNA have in place of thymine?
Answer: the base uracil

Question: What are codons?
Answer: a series of three-nucleotide sequences

Question: What specifies the correspondence between codons and amino acids during protein translation?
Answer: The genetic code

Question: What is the total complement of genes in an organism or cell known as?
Answer: its genome

Question: What does a chromosome consist of?
Answer: a single, very long DNA helix

Question: What is encoded on a chromosome?
Answer: thousands of genes

Question: What is the region of the chromosome at which a particular gene is located called?
Answer: its locus

Question: What does each locus contain?
Answer: one allele of a gene

Question: Where are the majority of eukaryotic genes stored?
Answer: on a set of large, linear chromosomes

Question: Chromosomes that are packed within the nucleus in complex with histones are called what?
Answer: a nucleosome

Question: What does the manner of DNA storage on the histone and the chemical modifications of the histone itself regulate?
Answer: whether a particular region of DNA is accessible for gene expression

Question: What are replication origins?
Answer: regions where DNA replication is initiated to make two copies of the chromosome

Question: Long stretches of repetitive sequence that cap the ends of the linear chromosomes are called what?
Answer: Telomeres

Question: What are prokaryotes?
Answer: bacteria and archaea

Question: How do prokaryotes store their genomes?
Answer: on a single large, circular chromosome

Question: What type of chromosome do some eukaryotic organelles contain?
Answer: a remnant circular chromosome with a small number of genes

Question: Small circles of DNA that encode only a few genes and are transferable between individuals are called what?
Answer: plasmids

Question: What allows genes for antibiotic resistance to be passed between individual cells?
Answer: horizontal gene transfer