DNA sequence

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A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology.

The possible letters are A, C, G, and T, representing the four nucleotide bases of a DNA strand — adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine — covalently linked to a phosphodiester backbone. In the typical case, the sequences are printed abutting one another without gaps, as in the sequence AAAGTCTGAC, read left to right in the 5' to 3' direction. Short sequences of nucleotides are referred to as oligonucleotides and are used in a range of laboratory applications in molecular biology. With regard to biological function, a DNA sequence may be considered sense or antisense, and either coding or noncoding. DNA sequences can also contain "junk DNA."

Sequences can be derived from the biological raw material through a process called DNA sequencing.

In some special cases, letters besides A, T, C, and G are present in a sequence. These letters represent ambiguity. Of all the molecules sampled, there is more than one kind of nucleotide at that position. The rules of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) are as follows:

For more information about DNA sequence, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with dna sequences

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The tall and short of diseases

Medicine & Health / Health

created 13 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research shows that being taller means a fatter pay check and an increased risk of some cancers.


maize

Reference Genome of Maize Published (w/ Podcast)

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science reveal ...


Petascale computing tools could provide deeper insight into genomic evolution

Petascale computing tools could provide deeper insight into genomic evolution

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Technological advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing have opened up the possibility of determining how living things are related by analyzing the ways in which their genes have been rearranged on chromosomes. ...


Microbial menagerie: Junk food binge alters community of microbes in the gut in less than a day

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (7) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Switching from a low-fat, plant-based diet to one high in fat and sugar alters the collection of microbes living in the gut in less than a day, with obesity-linked microbes suddenly thriving, according to ...


Complete Genomics publishes in Science on low-cost sequencing of 3 human genomes

Complete Genomics reports low-cost sequencing of 3 human genomes

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Complete Genomics, a third-generation human genome sequencing company, today announced publication of a report in the journal Science describing its proprietary DNA sequencing platform, including analysis of seq ...


Scientists reveal how induced pluripotent stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research ...


pig

Researchers sequence swine genome

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A global collaborative has produced a first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig, an achievement that will lead to insights in agriculture, medicine, conservation and evolution.


'Moonlighting' molecules discovered

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Since the completion of the human genome sequence, a question has baffled researchers studying gene control: How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome ...


'On the origin of nematodes' -- A phylogenetic tree of the world’s most numerous group of animals

'On the origin of nematodes' -- A phylogenetic tree of the world’s most numerous group of animals

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scientists from Wageningen University and Research Centre have published the largest nematode Phylogenetic Tree to date in cooperation with the Dutch Plant Protection Service (PD) and the University of California ...


Scientists use world's fastest supercomputer to create the largest HIV evolutionary tree

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Supporting Los Alamos National Laboratory's role in the international Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) consortium, researchers are using the Roadrunner supercomputer to analyze vast quantities of genetic sequences ...


Trembling hands and molecular handshakes

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 23, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The heritable Fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome is a common neurodegenerative disease. It is assumed to result from a relative lack of the protein Pur-alpha. A new study by a German team under the leadership of Dr. Dierk Niessing ...


Study surprise yields new target for assessing genes linked to autism

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates strongly with autism and which doesn't involve changes to the DNA sequence itself. Rather, the changes are in the way the ...


Using RNAi-based technique, scientists find new tumor suppressor genes in lymphoma

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Oct 13, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have uncovered a large, new cache of genes that act as built-in barriers against cancer. Known as tumor suppressors, the newly identified genes and the insight that they ...


New age of discovery for new proteins dawns

New age of discovery for new proteins dawns

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- We are on the brink of another new age of discovery- this time of countless new proteins, which could be used in a whole range of situations from medicine to industry, following the successful ...


Bug splatter on your car's windshield is a treasure trove of genomic biodiversity

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

If you have ever taken a long road trip, the windshield of your car will inevitably be splattered with bugs by the time you arrive at your destination. Could the DNA left behind be used to estimate the diversity of insects ...