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Your insider guide to the stuff of life
3.8 billion years old and counting, there’s more than a little to know about the fundamentals of how life works. This friendly guide takes you from the primordial soup to the present, explaining how specialized cells have given rise to everything living, from the humblest amoeba to walking, talking human beings. Whether you’re enrolled in a cell or molecular biology course and need a straightforward overview, or are just curious about the latest advances, this fully updated edition is your all-access ticket to our inner world.
Molecular & Cell Biology For Dummies decodes jargon and theories that can tax even the most devoted student. It covers everything from basic principles to how new technology, genetic testing, and microarray techniques are opening up new possibilities for research and careers. It also includes invaluable tips on how to prepare for—and ace—your exams!
From microscopic details to macro concepts, this book has something for you.
René Fester Kratz, PhD, teaches biology at Everett Community College in Everett, Washington. She works with other scientists and K–12 teachers to develop science curricula that align with national learning standards and the latest research on human learning.
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: The World of the Cell 5
Chapter 1: Exploring the World of the Cell 7
Cells and Viruses: Discovering the Inhabitants of the Microscopic World 7
You: On the cellular level 8
Them: Bacteria and viruses 9
The Life of a Cell: How Cells Get What They Need to Survive and Reproduce 10
Sexual Reproduction: Shuffling the Genetic Deck for the Next Generation 10
DNA to Protein: Following the Instructions in the Genetic Code 11
DNA Technology: Tackling the World’s Problems 11
Chapter 2: Take a Tour inside the Cell 13
Admiring the Unity and Diversity of Cells 13
Finding Common Ground: Structures in All Cells 14
Customs: Plasma membrane 15
A happenin’ place: The cytoplasm 16
The library: DNA-containing region 17
Workbenches: Ribosomes 17
Your Body, Your Cells: Eukaryotic Cells 18
Home office: The nucleus 20
Post office: The endomembrane system 22
The fireplace: Mitochondria 24
In the kitchen: Chloroplasts 26
Scaffolding and railroad tracks: The cytoskeleton 27
Rebar and concrete: Cell walls and extracellular matrices 30
Tiny but Mighty: Prokaryotic Cells 32
Castle walls: The cell wall 33
Ooze, slime, and grappling hooks: Capsules, pili, and fimbriae 33
Outboard motors: Bacterial flagella 33
Chapter 3: Dead or Alive: Viruses 35
Viruses: Hijackers of the Cellular World 35
Just the basics: The structure of viruses 36
Knock, knock, virus calling: How viruses get into cells 37
War on a Microcosmic Scale: Viruses of Bacteria 39
Seek and destroy: The lytic cycle 40
I think I’ll take a little nap: The lysogenic cycle 41
I’ve Got a Cold: Viruses of Eukaryotes 41
Same story, different players 42
Come in and take your coat off 44
There’s more than one way to copy a virus 45
Leaving it all behind 47
Putting it all together 47
HIV and AIDS: Viruses in the real world 48
Part 2: Molecules: The Stuff of Life 51
Chapter 4: Better Living through Chemistry 53
Life Really Matters 53
It’s Elemental: Atoms That Make Up Living Things 54
Exploring subatomic particles 56
Defining elements 56
Comparing isotopes 57
Let’s Bond: How Atoms Are Attracted to Each Other 59
Feeling fulfilled by arranging your electrons just right 60
Holding on: Electronegativity 63
Give and take: Oxidation and reduction 64
Opposites attract: Ionic bonds 65
Sharing is caring: Covalent bonds 65
A molecule by any other picture 66
Don’t hog the toys! Polar covalent bonds 67
Molecular Velcro: Hydrogen bonds 67
Molecular cliques: Hydrophobic interactions 69
Blue Planet: The Ocean inside Your Cells 69
Splitting water 70
Measuring pH 70
Changing pH 71
Maintaining pH 71
Chain, Chain, Chain: Building and Breaking Polymers 72
Identifying the parts and the whole 72
Getting together and breaking up again 73
Dressing for success: Functional groups determine molecular properties 73
Chapter 5: Carbohydrates: How Sweet They Are 77
CH2O: Structure of Carbohydrates 77
Keeping it simple: Monosaccharides 78
Making it complex: Polysaccharides 82
Sticky and Sweet: Functions of Carbohydrates 84
Chapter 6: Proteins: Workers in the Cellular Factory 87
Get into Shape: Levels of Protein Structure 87
Get in line: Primary structure 89
The long and winding road: Secondary structure 91
3D: Tertiary structure 92
Sometimes one is not enough: Quarternary structure 94
Jacks of All Trades: The Many Functions of Proteins 95
Get ’Er Done: Enzymes Make Things Happen 95
Made for each other: Enzymes and substrates 96
Helping hands: Cofactors and Coenzymes 97
Listening to others: Inhibiting enzymes 97
Gatekeepers: Membrane Proteins 100
I’m in Charge: DNA-Binding Proteins 101
Chapter 7: DNA and RNA: Instructions for Life 103
It’s Puzzling: Structure of Nucleic Acids 103
Navigating nucleotides 104
Naming the nucleotide bases 105
Recognizing nucleotides 107
Making DNA and RNA 107
The double helix of DNA 109
Shaping up RNA molecules 110
Breaking the Code: The Function of DNA and RNA 110
Chapter 8: Lipids: Waterproof and Energy Rich 113
Hydrocarbons: Structure of Lipids 113
Saturating fatty acids 114
Forming fats and oils 115
Looking at other types of lipids 116
You Say Fat Like It’s a Bad Thing: Functions of Lipids 119
Part 3: The Working Cell 121
Chapter 9: Hello, Neighbor: How Cells Communicate 123
Shipping and Receiving: Transport across Membranes 123
Getting past the bouncer 124
Which way should I go? 124
Crossing the border 125
Going with the flow 126
It’s an uphill battle 127
Chatting through Cellular Connections 129
Shaking hands through cell-cell attachments 129
Sticking together through thick and thin 131
Jumping the cell-cell gap 131
Sending and Receiving Signals 132
Satellite dishes: Receptors 133
Relaying the message: Signal transduction 133
Amplifying the signal 135
Calming down: Deactivating the signal 137
Chapter 10: Metabolism: Transferring Energy and Matter 139
Revving Up Your Metabolism 139
Stayin’ Alive: Cellular Work and the Laws of Thermodynamics 141
The first law of thermodynamics 141
The second law of thermodynamics 143
Going to work in the cellular factory 147
One Step at a Time: Metabolic Pathways 151
Taking baby steps during chemical reactions 152
Helping hands from enzymes 153
Giving and taking electrons in redox reactions 155
Shuttling electrons with electron carriers 156
Getting what you need at the cellular level 158
Chapter 11: Cellular Respiration: Every Breath You Take 159
Cellular Respiration: An Overview 159
Controlling the burn 161
Transferring energy to ATP 162
Moving electrons to oxygen 162
Taking things one step at a time 163
Gimme a Break: Glycolysis 164
Everybody’s doing it 165
Fine print: The steps of glycolysis 165
Making ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation 167
Living by glycolysis alone: Fermentation 168
The Wheel of Fire: Krebs Cycle 170
Linking glycolysis and Krebs 171
Fine print: The steps of the Krebs cycle 173
More is better: Taking advantage of the Krebs cycle 174
Taking It to the Bank: Chemiosmosis and Oxidative Phosphorylation 174
Transferring electrons along an electron transport chain 175
Transferring energy from food to ATP 177
The steps of the chemiosmotic theory of oxidative phosphorylation 177
Doing the math: How many ATP can you make from the energy in a glucose molecule? 179
Breaking Down Complex Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats 180
Finding an on-ramp to the superhighway 180
Feeding complex carbohydrates into the system 181
Burning fat 181
Breaking down proteins 183
It’s a Two-Way Street: Connections between Metabolic Pathways 183
Reversing the flow of matter and energy 184
Packing on the fat 185
Building muscle 185
Cellular respiration in the real world 186
Chapter 12: Photosynthesis: Makin’ Food in the Kitchen of Life 187
Photosynthesis: An Overview 187
Getting what plants need 188
Examining the role of soil 190
Basking in the Sun 190
Capturing the Sun’s energy with pigments 191
Yin and yang: The light reactions and the Calvin cycle 192
Shine on Me: The Light Reactions 194
Transferring light energy to chemical energy 194
The steps of photophosphorylation 196
The Circle of Life: Calvin Cycle 198
The steps of the Calvin cycle 199
Got Food? Photosynthesis in the Real World 201
Chapter 13: Splitsville: The Cell Cycle, Cell Division, and Cancer 203
Reproducing the Cell 203
Drifting Apart: Binary Fission 204
Red Light, Green Light: The Cell Cycle 205
Pausing during Gap 1 206
The S phase and Gap 2 206
The Dance of the Chromosomes: Mitosis 207
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Cytokinesis 209
Keeping It under Control 211
Cancer: The Enemy Within 212
Defining cancer 212
Causes of cancer 215
Fighting back 217
Part 4: Genetics: From One Generation to the Next 219
Chapter 14: Meiosis: Getting Ready for Baby 221
Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby: Reproduction 221
Riding the life cycle 222
Counting chromosomes 223
Homologous Chromosomes 224
Going Separate Ways: Meiosis 225
Following the plan 226
An overview of meiosis 226
Shuffling the Genetic Deck: Crossing Over 229
Why Two Divisions Are Better than One 230
It Was All a Mistake: Nondisjunction 231
Chapter 15: Genetics: Talkin’ ’Bout the Generations 233
Pass the Peas, Please: Mendel and Segregation of Single Gene Traits 233
Living like a monk 234
Speaking the lingo 235
Round pea meets wrinkled pea 236
The odds are 3:1 237
Making a prediction 238
Testing an idea 240
Remembering meiosis 241
Playing by the rules 241
Tracing a trait: Pedigrees 243
I Can Go My Own Way: Independent Assortment 245
Round yellow pea meets wrinkled green pea 245
Puzzling over the Punnett 247
Remembering meiosis 248
It’s News to Mendel: Inheritance beyond Simple Dominance 249
Almost Inseparable: Linked Genes 253
Traveling together because of linkage 254
Slipping away through recombination 255
Building a map of a chromosome 255
Mama’s Boy: Sex-Linked Inheritance 257
Explaining the differences 257
Analyzing the pedigree 258
Part 5: Molecular Genetics: How Cells Read the Book of Life 261
Chapter 16: DNA Replication: Doubling Your Genetic Stuff 263
DNA Replication: An Overview 263
Everybody Lend a Hand: Enzymes Involved in DNA Replication 264
It Takes a Village: Events at the Replication Fork 265
Start at the very beginning: Origins of replication 265
Learning to unwind with helicase 266
Putting down some primer 266
Rolling down the line 268
Replacing some tiles 268
Tying up loose ends 268
Finishing the job 269
Keeping It Together: Leading and Lagging Strands 269
Chapter 17: Transcription and Translation: What’s in a Gene? 273
File It under Genes: The Blueprints for RNA and Proteins 273
Defining a gene 274
Going with the flow 274
Make a Copy, Please: Transcription 275
Locating the file 275
Hiring a worker 276
Marking the end 278
Finishing Touches: RNA Processing in Eukaryotes 278
Making a Protein: Translation 280
Reading the code 280
The decoder: tRNA 283
Master craftsman: The ribosome 284
The steps of translation 285
Don’t Drink and Drive: Mutation 288
Everybody makes mistakes 288
Dealing with the consequences 289
Chapter 18: Control of Gene Expression: It’s How You Play Your Cards That Counts 291
Controlling the Situation: Gene Regulation and Information Flow 291
Becoming a specialist 292
Keeping house 293
I Can Be Flexible: Gene Expression in Bacteria 294
Organizing bacterial genes 295
Taking E coli to dinner 295
Looking at lac 296
Feeling repressed 296
Game on: Inducing the lac operon 297
Game over: Repressing the lac operon 298
Advancing to the next level: Catabolite repression of the lac operon 298
The Master Plan: Gene Expression in Eukaryotes 301
Seizing the opportunity 301
Unpacking the plan 302
Controlling transcription 304
Controlling events between transcription and translation 306
Controlling translation and beyond 307
Learning from Experience: Epigenetics 308
Part 6: Molecular Biology: Harnessing the Power of DNA 311
Chapter 19: The Book of You: Reading Your Genes 313
Copying a gene with PCR 313
Sorting molecules using gel electrophoresis 316
Reading a gene with DNA sequencing 318
I Read the Whole Thing: Sequencing Genomes 323
Unleashing the power of genomics 324
Reading the book of life with shotgun sequencing 324
Looking within the human genome 326
Beyond Genomics: Systems Biology and Epigenomes 327
Comparing gene expression with DNA microarrays 328
Mapping the epigenome 330
Chapter 20: Rewriting the Code of Life: Recombinant DNA Technology and Genome Editing 331
Piecing It Together: Recombinant DNA Technology 332
Cutting DNA with restriction enzymes 332
Making cDNA with reverse transcriptase 333
Cloning genes into a library 334
Finding a gene with DNA probes 336
Changing the Plan: Using Recombinant DNA Technology to Solve Problems 337
Making useful proteins through genetic engineering 338
Searching for disease genes 339
Building a “better” plant with genetic engineering 341
Fixing a broken gene with gene therapy 342
Hitting the Bull’s-Eye with Genome Editing 344
Get off my lawn! CRISPR in nature 344
Changing the plan: CRISPR in the lab 346
Part 7: The Part of Tens 349
Chapter 21: Ten Important Rules for Cells to Live By 351
The Cell Theory 351
The First Law of Thermodynamics 352
The Second Law of Thermodynamics 353
The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection 354
The Law of Conservation of Matter 356
Nucleic Acids Pair in Antiparallel Strands 357
Central Dogma 358
Protein Shape Is Essential to Their Function 358
Law of Segregation 360
Law of Independent Assortment 360
Chapter 22: Ten Ways to Improve Your Grade 361
Monitor Your Learning 361
Study Smarter 362
Actively Participate in Class 363
Schedule Your Study Time 363
Give Your Brain a Well-Rounded Workout during Study Sessions 364
Get Creative with Memory Tricks 365
Recognize the Difference between Levels of Understanding 365
Remember the Supporting Material 366
Use Your First Test as a Diagnostic Tool 366
Get Help Sooner Rather than Later 367
Index 369
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