1.
Chromosome
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A chromosome is a DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. Prokaryotes usually have one single circular chromosome, whereas most eukaryotes are diploid, chromosomes in eukaryotes are composed of chromatin fiber. Chromatin fiber is made of nucleosomes, a nucleosome is a histone octamer with part of a longer DNA strand attached to and wrapped around it. Chromatin fiber, together with associated proteins is known as chromatin, chromatin is present in most cells, with a few exceptions, for example, red blood cells. Occurring only in the nucleus of cells, chromatin contains the vast majority of DNA, except for a small amount inherited maternally. Chromosomes are normally visible under a microscope only when the cell is undergoing the metaphase of cell division. Before this happens every chromosome is copied once, and the copy is joined to the original by a centromere resulting in an X-shaped structure, the original chromosome and the copy are now called sister chromatids. During metaphase, when a chromosome is in its most condensed state, in this highly condensed form chromosomes are easiest to distinguish and study. In prokaryotic cells, chromatin occurs free-floating in cytoplasm, as these cells lack organelles, the main information-carrying macromolecule is a single piece of coiled double-helix DNA, containing many genes, regulatory elements and other noncoding DNA. The DNA-bound macromolecules are proteins that serve to package the DNA, chromosomes vary widely between different organisms. Some species such as certain bacteria also contain plasmids or other extrachromosomal DNA and these are circular structures in the cytoplasm that contain cellular DNA and play a role in horizontal gene transfer. Chromosomal recombination during meiosis and subsequent sexual reproduction plays a significant role in genetic diversity. In prokaryotes and viruses, the DNA is often densely packed and organized, in the case of archaea, by homologs to eukaryotic histones, small circular genomes called plasmids are often found in bacteria and also in mitochondria and chloroplasts, reflecting their bacterial origins. Some use the term chromosome in a sense, to refer to the individualized portions of chromatin in cells. However, others use the concept in a sense, to refer to the individualized portions of chromatin during cell division. The word chromosome comes from the Greek χρῶμα and σῶμα, describing their strong staining by particular dyes, schleiden, Virchow and Bütschli were among the first scientists who recognized the structures now so familiar to everyone as chromosomes. The term was coined by von Waldeyer-Hartz, referring to the term chromatin, in a series of experiments beginning in the mid-1880s, Theodor Boveri gave the definitive demonstration that chromosomes are the vectors of heredity. His two principles were the continuity of chromosomes and the individuality of chromosomes and it is the second of these principles that was so original
2.
Ultraviolet
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Ultraviolet is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm, shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays. UV radiation constitutes about 10% of the light output of the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs and specialized lights, such as lamps, tanning lamps. Consequently, the effects of UV are greater than simple heating effects. Suntan, freckling and sunburn are familiar effects of over-exposure, along with risk of skin cancer. Living things on dry land would be damaged by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun if most of it were not filtered out by the Earths atmosphere. More-energetic, shorter-wavelength extreme UV below 121 nm ionizes air so strongly that it is absorbed before it reaches the ground, Ultraviolet is also responsible for the formation of bone-strengthening vitamin D in most land vertebrates, including humans. The UV spectrum thus has both beneficial and harmful to human health. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to most humans, the lens in a human eye ordinarily filters out UVB frequencies or higher, and humans lack color receptor adaptations for ultraviolet rays. Under some conditions, children and young adults can see ultraviolet down to wavelengths of about 310 nm, near-UV radiation is visible to some insects, mammals, and birds. Small birds have a fourth color receptor for ultraviolet rays, this gives birds true UV vision, reindeer use near-UV radiation to see polar bears, who are poorly visible in regular light because they blend in with the snow. UV also allows mammals to see urine trails, which is helpful for animals to find food in the wild. The males and females of some species look identical to the human eye. Ultraviolet means beyond violet, violet being the color of the highest frequencies of visible light, Ultraviolet has a higher frequency than violet light. He called them oxidizing rays to emphasize chemical reactivity and to them from heat rays. The terms chemical and heat rays were eventually dropped in favour of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, in 1878 the effect of short-wavelength light on sterilizing bacteria was discovered. By 1903 it was known the most effective wavelengths were around 250 nm, in 1960, the effect of ultraviolet radiation on DNA was established. The discovery of the ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, named vacuum ultraviolet because it is absorbed by air, was made in 1893 by the German physicist Victor Schumann
3.
Escherichia coli
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Escherichia coli is a gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause food poisoning in their hosts. The harmless strains are part of the flora of the gut, and can benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2. E. coli is expelled into the environment within fecal matter, the bacterium grows massively in fresh fecal matter under aerobic conditions for 3 days, but its numbers decline slowly afterwards. E. coli and other facultative anaerobes constitute about 0. 1% of gut flora, cells are able to survive outside the body for a limited amount of time, which makes them potential indicator organisms to test environmental samples for fecal contamination. A growing body of research, though, has examined environmentally persistent E. coli which can survive for extended periods outside of a host, the bacterium can be grown and cultured easily and inexpensively in a laboratory setting, and has been intensively investigated for over 60 years. E. coli is a chemoheterotroph whose chemically defined medium must include a source of carbon, under favorable conditions, it takes only 20 minutes to reproduce. E. coli is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic and nonsporulating bacterium, cells are typically rod-shaped, and are about 2.0 μm long and 0. 25–1.0 μm in diameter, with a cell volume of 0. 6–0.7 μm3. E. coli stains Gram-negative because its cell wall is composed of a peptidoglycan layer. During the staining process, E. coli picks up the color of the counterstain safranin, the outer membrane surrounding the cell wall provides a barrier to certain antibiotics such that E. coli is not damaged by penicillin. Strains that possess flagella are motile, the flagella have a peritrichous arrangement. E. coli can live on a variety of substrates and uses mixed-acid fermentation in anaerobic conditions, producing lactate, succinate, ethanol, acetate. Optimum growth of E. coli occurs at 37 °C, and it uses oxygen when it is present and available. It can, however, continue to grow in the absence of oxygen using fermentation or anaerobic respiration, the ability to continue growing in the absence of oxygen is an advantage to bacteria because their survival is increased in environments where water predominates. The bacterial cell cycle is divided into three stages, the B period occurs between the completion of cell division and the beginning of DNA replication. The C period encompasses the time it takes to replicate the chromosomal DNA, the D period refers to the stage between the conclusion of DNA replication and the end of cell division. The doubling rate of E. coli is higher when more nutrients are available, However, the length of the C and D periods do not change, even when the doubling time becomes less than the sum of the C and D periods. At the fastest growth rates, replication begins before the round of replication has completed, resulting in multiple replication forks along the DNA
4.
DNA polymerase
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In molecular biology, DNA polymerases are enzymes that synthesize DNA molecules from deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. These enzymes are essential to DNA replication and usually work in pairs to two identical DNA strands from a single original DNA molecule. During this process, DNA polymerase reads the existing DNA strands to create two new strands that match the existing ones. Every time a cell divides, DNA polymerases are required to duplicate the cells DNA. In this way, genetic information is passed down generation to generation. Before replication can take place, an enzyme called helicase unwinds the DNA molecule from its tightly woven form and this opens up or unzips the double-stranded DNA to give two single strands of DNA that can be used as templates for replication. In 1956, Arthur Kornberg and colleagues discovered DNA polymerase I and they described the DNA replication process by which DNA polymerase copies the base sequence of a template DNA strand. Kornberg was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for this work, DNA polymerase II was also discovered by Thomas Kornberg and Malcolm E. Gefter in 1970 while further elucidating the role of Pol I in E. coli DNA replication. The main function of DNA polymerase is to synthesize DNA from deoxyribonucleotides, the DNA copies are created by the pairing of nucleotides to bases present on each strand of the original DNA molecule. This pairing always occurs in specific combinations, with cytosine along with guanine, by contrast, RNA polymerases synthesize RNA from ribonucleotides from either RNA or DNA. When synthesizing new DNA, DNA polymerase can add free nucleotides only to the 3 end of the newly forming strand and this results in elongation of the newly forming strand in a 5-3 direction. No known DNA polymerase is able to begin a new chain, it can add a nucleotide onto a pre-existing 3-OH group. Primers consist of RNA or DNA bases, in DNA replication, the first two bases are always RNA, and are synthesized by another enzyme called primase. It is important to note that the directionality of the newly forming strand is opposite to the direction in which DNA polymerase moves along the template strand. Since DNA polymerase requires a free 3 OH group for initiation of synthesis, hence, DNA polymerase moves along the template strand in a 3-5 direction, and the daughter strand is formed in a 5-3 direction. This difference enables the resultant double-strand DNA formed to be composed of two DNA strands that are antiparallel to each other, the function of DNA polymerase is not quite perfect, with the enzyme making about one mistake for every billion base pairs copied. Error correction is a property of some, but not all DNA polymerases and this process corrects mistakes in newly synthesized DNA. When an incorrect base pair is recognized, DNA polymerase moves backwards by one pair of DNA
5.
Protein
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Proteins are large biomolecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, a linear chain of amino acid residues is called a polypeptide. A protein contains at least one long polypeptide, short polypeptides, containing less than 20–30 residues, are rarely considered to be proteins and are commonly called peptides, or sometimes oligopeptides. The individual amino acid residues are bonded together by peptide bonds, the sequence of amino acid residues in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code. In general, the code specifies 20 standard amino acids, however. Sometimes proteins have non-peptide groups attached, which can be called prosthetic groups or cofactors, proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable protein complexes. Once formed, proteins only exist for a period of time and are then degraded and recycled by the cells machinery through the process of protein turnover. A proteins lifespan is measured in terms of its half-life and covers a wide range and they can exist for minutes or years with an average lifespan of 1–2 days in mammalian cells. Abnormal and or misfolded proteins are degraded more rapidly due to being targeted for destruction or due to being unstable. Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms, many proteins are enzymes that catalyse biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, other proteins are important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. In animals, proteins are needed in the diet to provide the essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized, digestion breaks the proteins down for use in the metabolism. Methods commonly used to study structure and function include immunohistochemistry, site-directed mutagenesis, X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance. Most proteins consist of linear polymers built from series of up to 20 different L-α-amino acids, all proteinogenic amino acids possess common structural features, including an α-carbon to which an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a variable side chain are bonded. Only proline differs from this structure as it contains an unusual ring to the N-end amine group. The amino acids in a chain are linked by peptide bonds. Once linked in the chain, an individual amino acid is called a residue, and the linked series of carbon, nitrogen. The peptide bond has two forms that contribute some double-bond character and inhibit rotation around its axis, so that the alpha carbons are roughly coplanar
6.
DNA polymerase I
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DNA polymerase I is an enzyme that participates in the process of prokaryotic DNA replication. Discovered by Arthur Kornberg in 1956, it was the first known DNA polymerase and it was initially characterized in E. coli and is ubiquitous in prokaryotes. In E. coli and many bacteria, the gene that encodes Pol I is known as polA. The physiological function of Pol I is mainly to repair any damage with DNA, in 1956, Arthur Kornberg and his colleagues discovered Pol I by using Escherichia coli extracts to develop a DNA synthesis assay. The scientists added -labeled Thymidine so that a polymer of DNA, not RNA. It was discovered that the P-fraction contained Pol I and heat-stable factors that were essential for the DNA synthesis reactions to undergo extreme temperatures and these factors were identified as nucleoside triphosphates, the building blocks of nucleic acids. The S-fraction contained multiple deoxynucleoside kinases. ”Pol I mainly functions in the repair of damaged DNA, Pol I is part of the alpha/beta protein superfamily protein class, which consists of alpha and beta segments that are scattered throughout any given protein. E. coli DNA Pol I consists of four domains with two separate enzymatic activities, the fourth domain consists of an exonuclease that proofreads the product of DNA Pol I and is able to remove any mistakes committed by Pol I. The other three domains work together to sustain DNA polymerase activity. E. coli bacteria contains 5 different DNA polymerases, DNA Pol I, DNA Pol II, DNA Pol III, DNA Pol IV, and DNA Pol V. Eukaryotic cells contain 5 different DNA polymerases, α, β, γ, δ, and ε. Eukaryotic DNA polymerase β is most similar to E. coli DNA Pol I because its function is associated with DNA repair. DNA polymerase β is mainly used in base excision- repair and nucleotide-excision repair, a total of 15 human DNA polymerases have been identified. DNA polymerases also cannot initiate DNA chains so they must be initiated by short RNA or DNA segments known as primers, in order for DNA polymerization to take place, two requirements must be met. First of all, all DNA polymerases must have both a template strand and a primer strand, unlike RNA, DNA polymerases cannot synthesize DNA from a template strand. Synthesis must be initiated by a short RNA segment, known as RNA primase, secondly, DNA polymerases can only add new nucleotides to the preexisting strand through hydrogen bonding. Since all DNA polymerases have a structure, they all share a two-metal ion-catalyzed polymerase mechanism. One of the metal ions attacks the primer 3 hydroxyl group of the dNTP, the second metal ion will stabilize the oxygens negative charge. The X-ray structures of the domain of all DNA polymerases have been said to resemble that of a humans right hand
7.
Exonuclease
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Exonucleases are enzymes that work by cleaving nucleotides one at a time from the end of a polynucleotide chain. A hydrolyzing reaction that breaks phosphodiester bonds at either the 3 or the 5 end occurs and its close relative is the endonuclease, which cleaves phosphodiester bonds in the middle of a polynucleotide chain. In both archaea and eukaryotes, one of the routes of RNA degradation is performed by the multi-protein exosome complex. This process involves the exonucleases catching up to the pol II, pol I then synthesizes DNA nucleotides in place of the RNA primer it had just removed. DNA polymerase I also has 3 to 5 and 5 to 3 exonuclease activity, the 3 to 5 can only remove one mononucleotide at a time, and the 5 to 3 activity can remove mononucleotides or up to 10 nucleotides at a time. In 1971, Lehman IR discovered exonuclease I in E. coli, since that time, there have been numerous discoveries including, exonuclease, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. Each type of exonuclease has a type of function or requirement. Exonuclease I breaks apart single-stranded DNA in a 3 →5 direction and it does not cleave DNA strands without terminal 3-OH groups because they are blocked by phosphoryl or acetyl groups. Exonuclease II is associated with DNA polymerase I, which contains a 5 exonuclease that clips off the RNA primer contained immediately upstream from the site of DNA synthesis in a 5 →3 manner. Exonuclease III has four catalytic activities,3 to 5 exodeoxyribonuclease activity, exonuclease IV adds a water molecule, so it can break the bond of an oligonucleotide to nucleoside 5 monophosphate. This exonuclease requires Mg 2+ in order to function and works at higher temperatures than exonuclease I, exonuclease V is a 3 to 5 hydrolyzing enzyme that catalyzes linear double-stranded DNA and single-stranded DNA, which requires Ca2+. This enzyme is important in the process of homologous recombination. Exonuclease VIII is 5 to 3 dimeric protein that not require ATP or any gaps or nicks in the strand. The 3 to 5 human type endonuclease is known to be essential for the processing of histone pre-mRNA. Following the removal of the downstream cleavage product 5 to 3 exonuclease continues to further breakdown the product until it is completely degraded and this allows the nucleotides to be recycled. This initiates transcriptional termination because one does not want DNA or RNA strands building up in their bodies, cCR4-NOT is a general transcription regulatory complex in yeast that is found to be associated with mRNA metabolism, transcription initiation, and mRNA degradation. CCR4 has been found to contain RNA and single-stranded DNA3 to 5 exonuclease activities, another component associated with the CCR4 complex is CAF1 protein, which has been found to contain 3 to 5 or 5 to 3 exonuclease domains in the mouse and Caenorhabditis elegans. This protein has not been found in yeast, which suggests that it is likely to have an abnormal exonuclease domain like the one seen in a metazoan, yeast contains Rat1 and Xrn1 exonuclease
8.
Mutant
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The natural occurrence of genetic mutations is integral to the process of evolution. The study of mutants is an part of biology, by understanding the effect that a mutation in a gene has. Although not all mutations have a phenotypic effect, the common usage of the word mutant is generally a pejorative term only used for noticeable mutations. Previously, people used the sport to refer to abnormal specimens. The scientific usage is broader, referring to any organism differing from the wild type, mutants should not be confused with organisms born with developmental abnormalities, which are caused by errors during morphogenesis. In a developmental abnormality, the DNA of the organism is unchanged, conjoined twins are the result of developmental abnormalities. Chemicals that cause developmental abnormalities are called teratogens, these may also cause mutations, chemicals that induce mutations are called mutagens. Most mutagens are also considered to be carcinogens, within any given environment, a certain species has a variety of different competitors for resources, and predators to be wary of. This applies to truly realistic environments, which are ephemeral and they are dynamic and constitute a multitude different aspects especially as seasons change. This means for a species to exist within this ecosystem, they must be able to adapt to environmental cues they are given. This gives rise to species having special advantages over others. A difference between species is prevalent in this manner and this is an example of a beneficial mutation that caused a mutant who can live within their harsh environment. This success will cause organism A to have a higher rate, thereby rapidly expanding the mutations which helped organism A to survive. This creates a new mutant of the original species. Another example of this is during the, during this massive increase in factories and other facilities, there was an influx in air pollution within many different environments. This influx caused a change in many ecosystems. The peppered-moth, shown here, had a color of white. Unfortunately because of the influx of air pollution, the trees it would hide in started turning darker and darker because of the black smock coming from the factories
9.
DNA replication
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In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. This process occurs in all living organisms and is the basis for biological inheritance, DNA is made up of a double helix of two complementary strands. During replication, these strands are separated, each strand of the original DNA molecule then serves as a template for the production of its counterpart, a process referred to as semiconservative replication. Cellular proofreading and error-checking mechanisms ensure near perfect fidelity for DNA replication, in a cell, DNA replication begins at specific locations, or origins of replication, in the genome. Unwinding of DNA at the origin and synthesis of new results in replication forks growing bi-directionally from the origin. A number of proteins are associated with the fork to help in the initiation and continuation of DNA synthesis. Most prominently, DNA polymerase synthesizes the new strands by adding nucleotides that complement each strand, DNA replication occurs during the S-stage of interphase. DNA replication can also be performed in vitro, DNA polymerases isolated from cells and artificial DNA primers can be used to initiate DNA synthesis at known sequences in a template DNA molecule. The polymerase chain reaction, a laboratory technique, cyclically applies such artificial synthesis to amplify a specific target DNA fragment from a pool of DNA. DNA usually exists as a structure, with both strands coiled together to form the characteristic double-helix. Each single strand of DNA is a chain of four types of nucleotides, nucleotides in DNA contain a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate, and a nucleobase. These nucleotides form phosphodiester bonds, creating the phosphate-deoxyribose backbone of the DNA double helix with the bases pointing inward. Nucleotides are matched between strands through hydrogen bonds to form base pairs, adenine pairs with thymine, and guanine pairs with cytosine. DNA strands have a directionality, and the different ends of a single strand are called the 3 end and the 5 end. By convention, if the sequence of a single strand of DNA is given. The strands of the helix are anti-parallel with one being 5 to 3. These terms refer to the atom in deoxyribose to which the next phosphate in the chain attaches. Directionality has consequences in DNA synthesis, because DNA polymerase can synthesize DNA in only one direction by adding nucleotides to the 3 end of a DNA strand, the pairing of complementary bases in DNA means that the information contained within each strand is redundant
10.
DNA polymerase III holoenzyme
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DNA polymerase III holoenzyme is the primary enzyme complex involved in prokaryotic DNA replication. It was discovered by Thomas Kornberg and Malcolm Gefter in 1970, the complex has high processivity and, specifically referring to the replication of the E. coli genome, works in conjunction with four other DNA polymerases. DNA Pol III is a component of the replisome, which is located at the replication fork, the replisome is composed of the following,2 DNA Pol III enzymes, each comprising α, ε and θ subunits. The α subunit has the polymerase activity, the ε subunit has 3→5 exonuclease activity. The θ subunit stimulates the ε subunits proofreading,2 β units which act as sliding DNA clamps, they keep the polymerase bound to the DNA. 2 τ units which acts to two of the core enzymes. 1 γ unit which acts as a loader for the lagging strand Okazaki fragments. The γ unit is made up of 5 γ subunits which include 3 γ subunits,1 δ subunit, the δ is involved in copying of the lagging strand. Χ and Ψ which form a 1,1 complex and bind to γ or τ, X can also mediate the switch from RNA primer to DNA. DNA polymerase III synthesizes base pairs at a rate of around 1000 nucleotides per second, DNA Pol III activity begins after strand separation at the origin of replication. Because DNA synthesis cannot start de novo, an RNA primer, complementary to part of the single-stranded DNA, is synthesized by primase, DNA polymerase III has a high processivity and therefore, synthesizes DNA very quickly. This high processivity is due in part to the β-clamps that hold onto the DNA strands, the removal of the RNA primer allows DNA ligase to ligate the DNA-DNA nick between the new fragment and the previous strand. DNA polymerase I & III, along many other enzymes are all required for the high fidelity, high-processivity of DNA replication
11.
Hypothesis
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A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous observations that cannot satisfactorily be explained with the scientific theories. Even though the hypothesis and theory are often used synonymously. A working hypothesis is a provisionally accepted hypothesis proposed for further research, P is the assumption in a What If question. Remember, the way that you prove an implication is by assuming the hypothesis, --Philip Wadler In its ancient usage, hypothesis referred to a summary of the plot of a classical drama. The English word hypothesis comes from the ancient Greek ὑπόθεσις word hupothesis, in Platos Meno, Socrates dissects virtue with a method used by mathematicians, that of investigating from a hypothesis. In this sense, hypothesis refers to an idea or to a convenient mathematical approach that simplifies cumbersome calculations. In common usage in the 21st century, a hypothesis refers to an idea whose merit requires evaluation. For proper evaluation, the framer of a hypothesis needs to define specifics in operational terms, a hypothesis requires more work by the researcher in order to either confirm or disprove it. In due course, a hypothesis may become part of a theory or occasionally may grow to become a theory itself. Normally, scientific hypotheses have the form of a mathematical model, in entrepreneurial science, a hypothesis is used to formulate provisional ideas within a business setting. The formulated hypothesis is then evaluated where either the hypothesis is proven to be true or false through a verifiability- or falsifiability-oriented Experiment, any useful hypothesis will enable predictions by reasoning. It might predict the outcome of an experiment in a setting or the observation of a phenomenon in nature. The prediction may also invoke statistics and only talk about probabilities, other philosophers of science have rejected the criterion of falsifiability or supplemented it with other criteria, such as verifiability or coherence. The scientific method involves experimentation, to test the ability of some hypothesis to adequately answer the question under investigation. In contrast, unfettered observation is not as likely to raise unexplained issues or open questions in science, a thought experiment might also be used to test the hypothesis as well. In framing a hypothesis, the investigator must not currently know the outcome of a test or that it remains reasonably under continuing investigation, only in such cases does the experiment, test or study potentially increase the probability of showing the truth of a hypothesis
12.
Wild type
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Wild type refers to the phenotype of the typical form of a species as it occurs in nature. Originally, the type was conceptualized as a product of the standard normal allele at a locus, in contrast to that produced by a non-standard. Mutant alleles can vary to an extent, and even become the wild type if a genetic shift occurs within the population. Continued advancements in genetic mapping technologies have created an understanding of how mutations occur. In general, however, the most prevalent allele – i. e. the one with the highest gene frequency – is the one deemed as wild type. Wild-type alleles are indicated with a + superscript, for example w+ and vg+ for red eyes and full-size wings, manipulation of the genes behind these traits led to the current understanding of how organisms form and how traits mutate within a population. Research involving the manipulation of wild-type alleles has application in fields, including fighting disease. The genetic sequence for wild-type versus mutant phenotypes and how these genes interact in expression is the subject of much research, better understanding of these processes is hoped to bring about methods for preventing and curing diseases that are currently incurable such as infection with the herpes virus. One example of such promising research in these fields was the study examining the link between wild-type mutations and certain types of lung cancer. Research is also being done dealing with the manipulation of certain traits in viruses to develop new vaccines. This research may lead to new ways to combat deadly viruses such as the Ebola virus, research using wild-type mutations is also being done to establish how viruses transition between species to identify harmful viruses with the potential to infect humans. Selective breeding to enhance the most beneficial traits is the structure upon which agriculture is built, Genetic manipulation expedited the evolution process to make crop plants and animals larger and more disease resistant. Research into wild-type mutations has allowed the creation of modified crops that are more efficient food producers. Utilization of these wild-type mutations has led to plants capable of growing in extremely arid environments. As more is understood about these genes, agriculture will continue to become an efficient process. Amplification of advantageous genes allows the best traits in a population to be present at much higher percentages than normal and these changes have also been the reason behind certain plants and animals being almost unrecognizable when compared to their ancestral lines. – The Telegraph Wild Type Learning Activity Wild-Type vs. Mutant Genetic Background
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