What is molecular biology?

Molecular Biology is the area of ​​biology that focuses on the molecular machine of life. The field was founded at the beginning of the 30th year, although the sentence was used only in 1938 and the field did not fly until the end of the 50th and early 60 years. Since then, the field progress has been massive. The field began with X -ray crystallography of various important biological molecules. Now, crystallographic databases store the molecular structure of tens of thousands of these molecules. Understanding these proteins helps us understand how the body works and how to repair it when it breaks down.

truly modern molecular biology has appeared to reveal DNA structure at the age of 60 and concurrent progress in biochemistry and genetics. Molecular biology is one of the three primary biological sciences of molecular scale, the others are biochemistry and genetics. There is no clear division between these three, but have general domains.

Generally speaking, Biochemiezaměly is on the function of proteins in the body, genetics focuses on how they areGenes inherited and distributed, and molecular biology focuses on the process of replication, transcription and translation of genes. Molecular biology has certain surface similarities to computer science, because genes can be considered a discrete code, although the proteins they code for, and their subsequent interactions can be highly non -linear.

The most important idea in molecular biology is the so-called "central dogma" of molecular biology, which states that the flow of information in organisms monitors a one-way street-gena is rewritten into RNA and RNA is translated into proteins. Although generally correct, "central dogma" is not as absolute or certain as the name suggests. In some cases, the information flow can be reversed because the protein environment can affect which genes are rewritten to RNA and which are translated into proteins. However, a wide picture applies as if proteins had too much effect on the genes that code for them, the bodywould be in chaos.

One of the most basic areas of investigation in molecular biology is the use of expression cloning to see which proteins are created by which genes genes. Expression cloning includes cloning DNA segment for protein, which is interesting, connects DNA to the plasmid vector, and then the vector introduces another plant or animal. The way in which the DNA is expressed is expressed, provides valuable knowledge of its role in the body. This allows us to learn what genes do. Without this knowledge, a large part of genetics, such as our knowledge of the human genome, would be unnecessary.

There are many other investigation lines in molecular biology. The field is tremendously huge. However, the above information serves as an introduction.