In a presentation to the Linnean Society of London in November 1831, the Scottish botanist Robert Brown (perhaps better known for his discovery of Brownian motion) mentioned almost as an afterthought that in orchid epidermal cells, a single "circular areola" could be seen, a "nucleus of the cell as perhaps it might be termed." Thus, the term "nucleus" (from Latin nucleus or nuculeus, "little nut" or kernel) was born for the compartment of the eukaryotic cell that contains the maj- ity of genetic information. One hundred and seventy-seven years later, we know that the nucleus is the site where genetic information is stored in the form of DNA, and where it is protected from damage, duplicated, divided, recombined, repaired, and "expressed." For the latter, the genetic information is faithfully transcribed from DNA to RNA, then released from the nucleus into the surrounding cytoplasm. Most likely translated into polypeptide chains, the information re-enters the nucleus in the form of diverse proteins that function in the processes listed above.
- ISBN10 1281955132
- ISBN13 9781281955135
- Publish Date 1 January 2009 (first published 27 November 2008)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 25 March 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Springer
- Pages 205
- Language English