The important experiments in the history of genetics are all MCAT favorites, appearing in one form or another over the years, often as starting points for passages. You definitely need to be aware in rough outline, at least, of the work of Miescher – Griffith - Avery, MacLeod, & McCarty – and Hershey and Chase. These experiments together firmly established that genes are composed of DNA.

Watson and Cricks discovery of the structure of DNA subsequently led to the understanding of how genes carry hereditary information. The fundamental understanding, the central dogma, is that a gene is a section of DNA that codes for a specific mRNA, which in turn contains the code for a polypeptide. A gene may also code for a structural RNA molecule. This is the 'central dogma' of molecular biology, in other words, the understanding in basic outline of the processes of transcription and translation.












The WikiPremed MCAT Course is a comprehensive course in the undergraduate level general sciences. Undergraduate level physics, chemistry, organic chemistry and biology are presented by this course as a unified whole within a spiraling curriculum. Please read our policies on Privacy and Shipping & Returns.  Contact Us. MCAT is a registered trademark of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which does not endorse the WikiPremed Course. WikiPremed offers the customers of our publications or our teaching services no guarantees regarding eventual performance on the MCAT.


Creative Commons License
WikiPremed is a trademark of Wisebridge Learning Systems LLC. The work of WikiPremed is published under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike License. There are elements of work here, such as a subset of the images in the archive from WikiPedia, that originated as GNU General Public License works, so take care to follow the unique stipulations of that license in printed reproductions.