Geoff G. answered • 05/25/21
You'd need to provide some more information for an exact answer, but in general the dependent variable is also referred to as the response variable. That is, it's the result or response that you're measuring. In this case it's likely to be the amount of protein produced.
The independent variables are also called the explanatory variables. It's usually the quantity that you're varying in the experimental condition which will affect the response. So in this case it might be the amount of a reactant or perhaps an enzyme that may affect the amount of protein produced. Usually you're looking at how the value of the dependent variable varies based on the value of the independent variable (hence the name - the dependent variable "depends on" the amount or type of the independent variable). If you're looking at how different medications affect blood pressure, blood pressure is the dependent variable and the treatments are the independent variables.
In experiments, the control is a treatment that might not be likely to produce any response at all. It provides a baseline which gives some context to the results for your dependent variable of interest. Placebos are controls - we can learn how effective the drug of interest really is by comparing its performance to something which shouldn't have any effect.