Genes

Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of each organism that
specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins characteristic of that organism. As a
basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes synthesize proteins,
using tRNAs to translate genetic information in mRNA.
b. Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules to predict the sequence of
amino acids from a sequence of codons in RNA.
c. Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may or may not
affect the expression of the gene or the sequence of amino acids in an encoded
protein.
d. Students know specialization of cells in multicellular organisms is usually due to
different patterns of gene expression rather than to differences of the genes
themselves.
e. Students know proteins can differ from one another in the number and sequence
of amino acids.
f.* Students know why proteins having different amino acid sequences typically have
different shapes and chemical properties.