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Agriculture & Environment

Definitions

Below is a directory of terms used in the field of genetically modified crops. Most of the terms have been reproduced from the University of California Biotech [UCB] or John Innes Centre [JIC].

Producing enough food for a rapidly growing population, and taking care of our planet are two of the world's biggest challenges.

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N

Nucleotide

Strings of thousands of nucleotides form a DNA or RNA molecule. Nucleotides are composed of phosphate, sugar and one of four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil or thymine). Three bases form a codon, which specifies a particular amino acid; amino acids are strung together to form proteins. [UCB]

Nucleus

Central compartment in cells of 'higher' organisms (eukaryotes); it houses most of the heritable genetic information in the cell. [UCB]

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