cistron, gene, factor - (genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors"

operon - a segment of DNA containing adjacent genes including structural genes and an operator gene and a regulatory gene

biochemistry - the organic chemistry of compounds and processes occuring in organisms; the effort to understand biology within the context of chemistry

base pair - one of the pairs of chemical bases joined by hydrogen bonds that connect the complementary strands of a DNA molecule or of an RNA molecule that has two strands; the base pairs are adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine in DNA and adenine with uracil and guanine with cytosine in RNA

adenine, A - (biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA

cDNA, complementary DNA - single-stranded DNA that is complementary to messenger RNA or DNA that has been synthesized from messenger RNA by reverse transcriptase

cytosine, C - a base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine

coding DNA, exon - sequence of a gene's DNA that transcribes into protein structures; "exons are interspersed with introns"

intron - sequence of a eukaryotic gene's DNA that is not translated into a protein

junk DNA - stretches of DNA that do not code for genes; "most of the genome consists of junk DNA"

recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid, recombinant DNA - genetically engineered DNA made by recombining fragments of DNA from different organisms

sticky end - an end of DNA in which one strand of the double helix extends a few units beyond the other

jumping gene, transposon - a segment of DNA that can become integrated at many different sites along a chromosome (especially a segment of bacterial DNA that can be translocated as a whole)

guanine, G - a purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with cytosine

nucleic acid - (biochemistry) any of various macromolecules composed of nucleotid chains that are vital constituents of all living cells

polymer - a naturally occurring or synthetic compound consisting of large molecules made up of a linked series of repeated simple monomers

T, thymine - a base found in DNA (but not in RNA) and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with adenine