Flow of Genetic Information
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Genetic information refers to such informations that are pertaining to or determined by genes.
Flow of
Genetic Information
Genetic information refers to
such informations that are pertaining to
or determined by genes.
It has
been well established that DNA
replication makes it quite possible to maintain and sustain the flow of genetic information right from
one generation to the next one.
Figure :
6.3 clearly shows the two different
ways whereby the genetic information can flow conveniently.
[Adapted
From : Tortora GJ et al. ‘Microbiology : An Introduction’, The
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 5th end., 1995]
From Fig.
6.3, it is quite evident that the DNA of a cell undergoes replication before
cell division ; and, therefore, each ‘daughter
cell’ speficially receives a chromosome
which is found to be very much identical to that of the ‘parent cell’. Thus, inside each
metabolizing cell, the ensuing genetic
information intimately associated in
DNA also affords definite flow in two
different modes, namely :
(a) Transcription i.e., genetic information is duly transcribed into messenger RNA
(mRNA), and
(b) Translation i.e., subsequently, the transcribed mRNA is duly translated into
respective desired proteins. These two
aspects shall again be treated individually in Sections 2.8 and 2.9.
Salient Features : The salient features of Fig. 6.3 are as
stated under :
(i) Genetic information may be
transferred between generations of cells via
replication of DNA,
(ii) Genetic information can also
be exploited very much within a cell to produce the proteins which the cell
requires to function. In fact, such a vital and important information is duly
transferred via the processes of transcription and translation, and
(iii) The diagramatic representation of
the cell is a bacterium which essentially bears a single circular chromosome.
