The Selfish Gene: Key Terms

When reading chapter 3 of the book, "Immortal coils", it made it necessary for us to understand the key terms a little more. These words form what we've heard to be called DNA. "A DNA molecule is a long chain of building blocks called nucleotides", (Dawkins, Pg. 22).

Alleles: When two genes (who fight against each other) are going for the same chromosome. "...the word allele is synonymous with rival", (Dawkins, Pg.26).

Meiosis: Only happens in the sex cells, meaning, when sperms and eggs are being produced and only recieve 23 chromosomes.

Mitosis: When a cell divides -except sex cells- the two new cells recieve 46 chromosomes.

Start symbol: It's 'like a message' or code that shows the beginning of a protein chain. Ending symbol: The code that shows the end of a protein chain. "The only way to tell whe one cistron -gene interchangeably- ends and the next begins would be to read the symbols on the tape, looking for end of message and start of message symbols", (Dawkins, pg. 28).

Mimicry: Phenomenon where some species (for survival) imitate a characteristic of another species.

Point mutation: Misprint nucleotide sequence.