Glossary of Scientific Terms

K

Karyotype
The number and ordering of eukaryotic chromosomes according to size and appearance. The karyotype of an organism is a conserved feature and any changes in number and size of chromosomes are mutations that cause severe diseases and birth defects and are commonly lethal. The importance of chromosome structure is found in the spatial organization of genes on chromosomes, which has been found to be influencing when genes can be expressed, i.e., used to make a protein or functional RNA.

Kinetics
Kinetics is the science of measuring changes, of assessing rates of movements and flow. In biology, kinetics is concerned with enzyme kinetics, the rate of how proteins help catalyze a chemical reactions. Another application of kinetics is the rate of flow of molecules in solution by diffusion or in an energy field (such as charges in an electric field, or mass in a gravitational field). Flux rates of molecules across biological membranes are also studied by kinetics.