Basics of the Molecular Biology: From Genes to Its Function

The discipline of molecular biology primarily delineates by unravelling the interactions between deoxyribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid and proteins and their connections to various metabolic activities of the cell. The knowledge of molecular biology is essential to understand the mechanisms by which information in the genes translates into functional proteins in a highly coordinated and regulated manner in prokaryotic, eukaryotic and multicellular organisms. Several techniques have been developed to study these biomolecules and their regulations, which are getting increasingly popular amongst researchers of genetics and other closely associated fields. In this chapter, we have discussed the basic concept of genes and the central dogma of molecular biology. Various molecular biological tools that are used to study cellular biomolecules, including DNA, RNA and proteins have been reviewed in the later part of the chapter. We have also given a brief account of different DNA sequencing methods and their importance in understanding the functions of genes.