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Amino acids are basic building blocks of protein. There are 20 different amino acids: alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine and valine. Each amino acid is specified by different sets of three A's, C's, G's and U's (Handout 4.1). The words "amino acid" relates to a 19th century German word meaning “building stones”.
(Lesson 4)

Biotechnology involves the use or manipulation of living organisms to produce useful products. This includes using microbes to produce bread or yogurt or applying genetic engineering to make pest-resistant plants. It comes from the Greek root, bios, which means life, and technē meaning craft or skill.
(Lesson 5)

Carbohydrates are a group of chemicals, containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They include sugars, starches, celluloses, and gums and are a major energy source in our diet. The word comes from carbo, meaning carbon, and hydrate, meaning water, which contains hydrogen and oxygen.
(Lesson 4)

Cell is the small compartment that is the basic structural unit of all organisms - often called the building brick of life. The word comes from the Latin word, cellula, meaning "a small room". (Lessons 1 and 3)

Code is a system of symbols, letters, or words used for transmitting messages. The word code comes from French and Latin words meaning "set of laws".
(Lesson 2)

Codon contains three bases of either A's, G's, C's or U's, that code for a specific amino acid. Some amino acids have more than one triplet code. There are also codons that start or stop protein synthesis. Codon has the same origin as a word we learned about in Lesson 2, code.
(Lesson 4)

Characteristic is a distinguishing trait or quality and comes from the original Greek word, character, which originally meant "sharpen or cut". The original word referred to a stamp marking one item to make it different from another.
(Lesson 1)

Chemical is a substance with a defined structure that participates in reactions that can change its own properties or those of another chemical. The word comes from the Latin, chimicus, shortened from alchimicus, an ancient practice that attempted to change metals into gold.
(Lesson 3)

Chromosome is a threadlike strand of DNA that transmits genetic information of a cell. The word comes from the Greek, chroma, meaning "color", because chromosomes can be stained with dyes, and soma, meaning "body".
(Lesson 3)

Diversity is being made up of distinct characteristics or qualities. The word is related to words like verse, version, vertebra, and divert. The root of the word comes from a Latin word with two parts meaning "turn" and "aside". The word divert means "turn in new directions".
(Lesson 1)

DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is a series of chemical units, called nucleic acids, that contains information for specific characteristics of organisms. DNA is the long-term storage unit of information for the organism. It is like a cookbook of instructions to construct parts of the organism.
(Lesson 1)

Enzymes are specialized proteins that speed certain chemical reactions, often millions of times faster than they would occur without enzymes. Most processes in the cell require enzymes. En and zyme, originally Greek words, mean to leaven, because certain yeast enzymes cause bread to rise or be leavened.
(Lesson 4)

Genes are units of information that determine particular characteristics in an organism, The word comes from the old European root gen- meaning "to produce". Other words from "gen-" are genetic and genome. Genes have information that make individuals different. So your genes "produce" you.
(Lesson 1)

Genetic code is the chemical code in which DNA is written. It specifies how information in the genome is read to give proteins that determine the organism's characteristics. The code is made of a long chain of chemical units called nucleotides. From which word is genetic derived? (Look in Lesson 1).
(Lesson 2)

Genetic engineering is a new method of genetic modification that involves the scientific alteration of the genome of a living organism, using the tools of recombinant DNA.
(Lesson 5)

Genome is all of the genetic information contained in an organism that determines its characteristics. Physically it is a coiled string of DNA that, stretched out, is over five feet long. It is from the German word, gen, meaning "to produce" and the Greek ome, meaning "body".
(Lesson 2)

Genomics is the study of the genome, which contains most all of the genetic information in an organism that determines its traits. The word is from the German, gen, meaning to produce, and the Greek, ome, meaning body.
(Lesson 5)

Marker assisted breeding is a process by which a visible, chemical or RNA/DNA-based marker is used to select indirectly plants that have traits of interest.
(Lesson 5)

Mutation happens when a change occurs in the series of chemical units in DNA. These changes, or mutations, play a role in evolution and contribute to the different plant varieties we saw in Lesson 1. The word is from the Latin, mutationem, meaning "action of changing."
(Lesson 2)

Nucleus is a large, usually spherical structure containing the genetic information responsible for an organism’s characteristics. The word comes from the Latin, nucleus, meaning "kernel" or "core", denoting its central role in the cell.
(Lesson 3)

Organelle is a structure in a cell, like a nucleus, mitochondrion, or chloroplast, that performs a specific function. The word comes from the Greek word, organ, meaning "tool" and -elle which means "small".
(Lesson 3)

Organism is an individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, or bacterium. The Greek word for organ means "tool or instrument"; Ism means "system". So an organism, such as the human body, is a "system of tools".
(Lesson 1)

Proteins are essential components of living cells and consist of many individual chemical units called amino acids. The word comes from a Greek word meaning "of first importance", which emphasizes the important role proteins play in living organisms.
(Lesson 1)

Recombinant DNA means joining DNA together from two sources, using enzymes that can cut and paste DNA. It is the process used to genetically engineer plants.
(Lesson 5)

RNA, for ribonucleic acid, is similar to DNA, but contains the sugar, ribose, not deoxyribose as in DNA. Unlike double-stranded DNA, RNA is single-stranded, copied from a single strand of DNA by pairing G with C; C with G; T with A; and A with U, which substitutes for T in RNA. There are three types of RNA: ribosomal, transfer and messenger.
(Lesson 4)

Selective breeding is a classical means of genetic modification that involves crossing two different, but compatible, organisms to get offspring that have the desirable traits of both parents.
(Lesson 5)

Starch is a carbohydrate made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and is in the form of sugars linked together. In plants it is mainly in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots and stems. Starch comes from the Middle English word, starche, a substance used to stiffen cloth.
(Lesson 4)