Tutoring biology, mitochondrial DNA can be a topic. The tutor begins about it. Watching true crime shows, I believe, is where I first heard about mitochondrial DNA, aka mtDNA. It seemed to me that mtDNA might be possible to extract …
Tutoring biology, mechanisms of evolution arise. The tutor mentions genetic drift. Genetic drift is a change of genetic ratios in a population – for example, the percent of individuals who have brown eyes vs blue. Importantly, genetic drift occurs by …
Tutoring biology, terms come up. The tutor mentions retrovirus. A retrovirus is a type of virus (for more on viruses, see my post here). What makes one a retrovirus is that, internally, its genetic material (called its genome) is encoded …
Tutoring biology, classification comes up. The tutor mentions domains in biology. When I was in high school, the classification system in biology started with kingdom, so far as I learned. Nowadays, a level has been introduced above kingdom: the domain. …
Tutoring biology, current technology comes up. The tutor mentions mRNA vaccines. A simple way to see mRNA is as a blueprint to make a certain protein; a cell that contains specific mRNA will make the protein it describes. An mRNA …
Tutoring biology, viruses come up. The tutor mentions the two common life cycles they have. In broad strokes, the lysogenic cycle is one that involves a waiting period that can last for generations. The lytic cycle, on the other hand, …
Tutoring biology, various phyla are handy to know about. The tutor mentions Phylum Cnidaria. Cnidaria includes jellyfish but also sea anemones. As examples, jellyfish are in the “medusa” form, while anemones are in the “polyp” form. Polyps are set in …
Tutoring biology, characteristics of various phyla are discussed. The tutor mentions Phylum Porifera. Porifera is the phylum of the sponges, which are among the simplest animals. They lack specialized tissues, but have specialized cells lodged in a medium called mesohyl. …
Tutoring biology, genetic terms come up. The tutor mentions homologous recombination. Homologous recombination happens when a segment of foreign DNA is brought in to replace the corresponding local DNA. Perhaps the easiest case to think of is when two DNA …
Biology: genetic terms: homologous recombination Read more »
Tutoring biology, categories are important. The tutor mentions Phylum Echinodermata. Echinodermata includes sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and sand dollars. All of its species are marine. They tend to have five lines of symmetry evenly spaced around a circle. …