Cells
- Mitosis vs meiosisMitosis is a single nuclear division that produces two nuclei genetically identical to the original and at the same ploidy level.
- Haploid vs diploidA haploid cell contains a single set of chromosomes.
- Plant cell vs animal cellBoth are eukaryotic, so both have a plasma membrane, nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria and the endomembrane system.
- Stages of mitosisOpenStax divides mitosis, or karyokinesis, into five stages: prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
- Cell cycleThe eukaryotic cell cycle has four phases: G₁, S and G₂, which together make up interphase, followed by M phase, the mitotic phase.
- Prokaryotic vs eukaryotic cellsAll cells share four components: a plasma membrane, cytoplasm, DNA and ribosomes.
Membranes and transport
- Hypertonic vs hypotonicBoth terms describe the solution outside a cell, compared with the cytoplasm inside it.
- Osmosis vs diffusionDiffusion is the passive movement of any substance from a high concentration area to a low concentration area.
- Active vs passive transportPassive transport moves a substance down its concentration gradient and costs the cell nothing, because the gradient is itself potential energy.
Cellular energetics
- Photosynthesis equationThe overall equation for photosynthesis is 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light energy → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂.
- Cellular respiration equationAerobic cellular respiration is summarized as C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ → 6H₂O + 6CO₂, the reverse of the photosynthesis summary.
- Krebs cycleThe Krebs cycle, also called the citric acid cycle or TCA cycle, is an eight-step closed loop in the mitochondrial matrix.
Heredity and genetics
- Dihybrid crossA dihybrid cross follows two characteristics at once, starting from true-breeding parents that differ in both.
- Incomplete dominance vs codominanceIn incomplete dominance the heterozygote shows an intermediate phenotype, as a red and a white snapdragon parent give pink offspring.
- Hardy-Weinberg equationThe Hardy-Weinberg equation, p² + 2pq + q² = 1, predicts genotype frequencies in a population that is not evolving, with p and q the frequencies of the two alleles.
- Punnett squareA Punnett square applies the rules of probability to predict the outcomes of a genetic cross.
- Genotype vs phenotypeA genotype is an organism's underlying genetic makeup, including alleles that are not expressed.
DNA, RNA and gene expression
- DNA vs RNADNA and RNA are both polynucleotides, but DNA uses deoxyribose and the bases A, T, G and C, and forms an antiparallel double helix.
- Codon chartA codon chart maps each three-nucleotide mRNA codon to the amino acid it specifies.
- Transcription vs translationTranscription copies a gene's DNA sequence into messenger RNA, one nucleotide at a time.