Gene

基因

The term "gene" refers to a functional segment of DNA, which in eukaryotic cells would be a part of a chromosome in the nucleus of the cell. The gene is the unit of inheritance: we view the DNA as containing the full set of genes that determine the inheritable characteristics, so the gene is the smallest functional element in that master blueprint for inheritance. Functionally, the gene is a sequence of nucleotides that code for a specific protein. The nucleotides in the DNA code for amino acids in groups of three. There are 64 possible triplet "codons", and their correlation with amino acids has been worked out to reveal the "genetic code". The term genome for a given organism refers to the collection of all the genes and other information in the DNA.

‘基因’一词指的是DNA中的一个功能片段，在真核细胞中，它会是细胞核中染色体的一部分。基因是遗传的基本单位：我们将DNA视为包含决定可遗传特征的全部基因，因此基因是该遗传蓝图中最小的功能单元。从功能上看，基因是一串核苷酸，这些核苷酸以三联体的形式编码特定的蛋白质。DNA中的核苷酸以三联体的形式编码氨基酸。共有64种可能的三联体“密码子”，它们与氨基酸之间的对应关系已被确定，从而揭示了“遗传密码”。对于某一生物体而言，基因组指的是DNA中所有基因和其他信息的集合。

The process of reading and transferring the genetic information from the coding region of the DNA is called transcription.

将DNA的编码区遗传信息读取并转录的过程称为转录。

Gene Expression and Regulation

基因表达与调控

The term "gene" refers to a functional segment of DNA, which in eukaryotic cells would be a part of a chromosome.

‘基因’一词指的是DNA中的一个功能片段，在真核细胞中，它会是染色体的一部分。

All organisms begin as a single cell, but multicellular organisms have programming to produce cells that have considerably different characteristics, even though the DNA is presumably identical. Kim, et al. have an interesting description of differentiation: "Cell fate is governed not only by the genome, but also by chemical changes to DNA and its associated proteins, a research field called epigenetics. These 'epigenetic' tags are one of the ways that genes get switched on or off in different places at different times, enabling different tissues and organs to arise from a single fertilised egg."

所有生物都始于一个细胞，但多细胞生物具有程序，能够产生具有显著不同特征的细胞，尽管DNA可能相同。Kim等人对分化有有趣的描述：'细胞命运不仅由基因组决定，还受DNA及其相关蛋白质的化学变化影响，这一研究领域称为表观遗传学。这些'表观遗传'标记是基因在不同时间和不同位置被开启或关闭的一种方式，使不同组织和器官从一个受精卵中产生。