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Molecular biology

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly cell biology, genetics, biophysics and biochemistry.[1][2]

Molecular biology tries to explain the interactions between the various systems of a cell. It studies the relationship of DNA, RNA and how proteins are made, and how these interactions are regulated.

Relationship to other specialities

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Schematic relationship between biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology

Researchers in molecular biology use specific techniques that are typical for molecular biology, but they combine these with techniques and ideas from genetics and biochemistry. This diagram shows one possible view of the relationship between the fields:

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References

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  1. Alberts B. Johnson A. Lewis J. Raff M. Roberts K. Walter P. 2008. Molecular biology of the cell, 5th ed. Garland. ISBN 0-8153-3218-1
  2. Lodish H. Berk A. Matsudaira P. Kaiser C.A. Krieger M. Scott M.P. Zipurksy S.L. Darnell J. 2004. Molecular cell biology, 5th ed. Freeman, NY.
  • Cohen S.N. Chang A.C.Y. Boyer H. & Heling R.B. 1973. Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro. PNAS 70, 3240–3244.
  • Rodgers M. 1975. The Pandora's box congress. Rolling Stone 189, 37–77.

Other websites

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Other reliable accounts

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Personal accounts of Nobel Prize winners

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