Introductory Microbiology

Genotype and phenotype AND DNA and chromosomes

Genotype and phenotype
Genotype is the genetic composition of an organism its entire DNA. Phenotype is the expression of the genes-the proteins of the cell and the properties they confer on the organism.

DNA and chromosomes
The DNA in a chromosome exists as one long double helix associated with various proteins that regulate genetic activity. Bacterial DNA is circular, the chromosome of E. coli, for example, contains about 4 million base pairs and is approximately 1000 times longer than the cell.
Genomics is the molecular characterization of genomes. Information contained in the DNA is transcribed into RNA and translated into proteins.