Question
Using the organizational hierarchy of genetic material, choose the sequence that moves from the smallest listed building block to a whole chromosome. Select one sequence.A. Gene → nucleotide → chromosome → chromatinB. Nucleotide → gene → chromatin → chromosomeC. Chromatin → chromosome → nucleotide → geneD. Chromosome → chromatin → gene → nucleotide
Answer
B. Nucleotide → gene → chromatin → chromosome is the intended organizational order for these choices.
- A nucleotide is a building block of DNA.
- A gene is a DNA sequence containing information for a functional product; it includes many nucleotides.
- Chromatin is DNA associated with proteins, including the histones around which DNA is packaged.
- A chromosome is an organized unit of genetic material made from chromatin and containing many DNA sequences, including genes.
Why the other sequences fail
A puts a gene before its nucleotide building blocks and places the chromosome before its chromatin material. C puts chromatin and a chromosome before the nucleotide. D reverses the intended progression from building block toward whole chromosome.
What this order does and does not measure
This is a hierarchy exercise, not a universal ruler measurement. Chromatin is a material with variable extent and compaction, not a discrete object of fixed size. A chromosome is made of chromatin even when it is not condensed for division. The selected sequence should not be used to claim that every chromatin segment is physically larger than every gene.
Evidence boundary
The prompt adapts Pearson genetics asset 28972716, retaining all four sequences and their order. “Smallest to largest” follows that exercise’s organizational hierarchy. Chromatin has no single fixed physical size, and chromosomes are composed of chromatin throughout the cell cycle. This is not a general ordering of cells, nuclei, organelles, or every possible DNA fragment.
Sources
These references support the concepts and methods used in the explanation above.