Sam's+Vocab


 * nucleus - n. - A cell structure that contains nucleic acids, the chemical instructions that direct all the cell's activities.**
 * -nucleuses are found in the center of both animal and plant cells.**

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 * nucleic acids - n. - Very large organic molecule made of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, that contains the instructions cells need to carry out all the functions of life.**
 * double helix - n. - The coiled structure of double-stranded DNA in which strands linked by hydrogen bonds form a spiral configuration, with the two strands oriented in opposite directions.**

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 * hydrogen bond- n. - a type of attractive intermolecular force that exists between two partial electric charges of opposite polarity**
 * chromosome- n. - a doubled rod of condensed chromatin; contains DNA that carries genetic information.**


 * cytosine- n. - A pyrimidine base, C4H5N3O, that is the constituent of DNA and RNA involved in base pairing with guanine.**


 * adenine- n. - A purine base, C5H5N5, that is the constituent involved in base pairing with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA.**


 * guanine- n. -** **A purine base, C5H5ON5, that is an essential constituent of both RNA and DNA.**


 * RNA- n.** **A polymeric constituent of all living cells and many viruses, consisting of a long, usually single-stranded chain of alternating phosphate and ribose units with the bases adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil bonded to the ribose. RNA molecules are involved in protein synthesis and sometimes in the transmission of genetic information. Also called //ribonucleic acid//.**


 * nitrogen bases-** **//n. -//** **A basic compound that contains nitrogen, such as a purine or pyrimidine.**


 * cell division- n. -The process by which a cell divides to form two daughter cells. Upon completion of the process, each daughter cell contains the same genetic material as the original cell and roughly half of its cytoplasm.**


 * DNA- Deoxyribonucleic acid - the genetic blueprint for you entire body.**


 * DNA replication-**


 * base pairs-** **The pair of nitrogenous bases, consisting of a purine linked by hydrogen bonds to a pyrimidine, that connects the complementary strands of DNA or of hybrid**


 * trait-**


 * thymine- n. - A pyrimidine base, C5H6N2O2, that is an essential constituent of DNA.**


 * gene- n. - A gene is a factor that controls a trait.**


 * backbone- n. - The vertebrate spine or spinal column.**