1 the set of exogenic (physical, chemical and biological) processes that alter the physical and chemical state of rocks at or near the earth's surface.  intensity of most weathering decreases with depth, because variations in temperature and moistures decrease with depth.
A gene is a segment of nucleic acid that contains the information necessary to produce a functional product, usually a protein. Genes consist of a long strand of DNA (RNA in some viruses) that contains a promoter, which controls the activity of a gene, and a coding sequence, which determines what the gene produces.
The DNA also contains large sequences that do not code for any protein and their function is not known. The gene of the coding region encodes instructions that allow a cell to produce a specific protein or enzyme. There are nearly 50,000 and 100,000 genes with each being made up of hundreds of thousands of chemical bases. In order to make proteins, the gene from the DNA is coped by each of the chemical bases into messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) or mRNA. The mRNA moves out of the nucleus and uses cell organelles in the cytoplasm called ribosomes to form the polypeptide or amino acid that finally folds and configures to form the protein.