News tagged with gene sequence
New molecule has potential to help treat genetic diseases and HIV
(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have created a molecule that's so good at tangling itself inside the double helix of a DNA sequence that it can stay there for up to 16 days before ...
5 hours ago |
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Treatment for tuberculosis can be guided by patients' genetics
A gene that influences the inflammatory response to infection may also predict the effectiveness of drug treatment for a deadly form of tuberculosis.
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Automated cDNA preparation system accelerates CAGE analysis on a single molecule sequence
Researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) have developed a robotic workflow for sample preparation on the HeliScope single molecule sequencer which drastically reduces sample preparation time to ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension
Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans.
Jan 22, 2012 |
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Unraveling the Chinese cabbage genome
Clues into the evolutionary diversification of brassicas have emerged from the draft Chinese cabbage genome sequence. Brassica crops include many agriculturally important vegetables, such as Chinese cabbage, ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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Study provides new insights into an ancient mechanism of mammalian evolution
A team of geneticists and computational biologists in the UK today reveal how an ancient mechanism is involved in gene control and continues to drive genome evolution. The new study is published in the journal ...
Jan 12, 2012 |
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New way to learn about, potentially block traits in harmful pathogens
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have developed a new way to identify the genes of harmful microbes, particularly those that have been difficult to study in the laboratory.
Jan 09, 2012 |
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Tracking genes' remote controls
As an embryo develops, different genes are turned on in different cells, to form muscles, neurons and other bodily parts. Inside each cell's nucleus, genetic sequences known as enhancers act like remote controls, ...
Jan 09, 2012 |
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Tiny roundworm points to big promise
Two related studies from Northwestern University offer new strategies for tackling the challenges of preventing and treating diseases of protein folding, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, amyotrophic ...
Jan 06, 2012 |
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Unique E. coli protein may be not after all
A bacterial protein recently thought to be a unique mechanism for utilizing iron may not be after all. Researchers from the University of Georgia, the Fellowship for Interpretation of Genomes, the University of Oklahoma and ...
Jan 03, 2012 |
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Gene fusion in lung cancer afflicting never-smokers may be target for therapy
Smoking is a well-known risk factor for lung cancer, but nearly 25% of all lung cancer patients have never smoked. In a study published online today in Genome Research, researchers have identified a previously unknown gene f ...
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Built-in 'self-destruct timer' causes ultimate death of messenger RNA in cells
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered the first known mechanism by which cells control the survival of messenger RNA (mRNA) -- arguably biology's most important molecule. ...
Dec 22, 2011 |
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U.S. Supreme Court petitioned to review AMP, et al. lawsuit on gene patents
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a case that challenges the validity ...
Dec 15, 2011 |
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Massive DNA search uncovers new mutations driving blood cancer
The most comprehensive search to date of DNA abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has unearthed several new altered genes that drive this common blood cancer, a finding that could potentially ...
Dec 12, 2011 |
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New leads on mechanisms that confer virulence to E.coli-type bacteria
A team headed by scientists from the IRB Barcelona reports how the protein Ler, which is found in pathogenic bacteria, interacts with certain DNA sequences, thereby activating numerous genes responsible for ...
Dec 09, 2011 |
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Gene
A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring. A modern working definition of a gene is "a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance, which is associated with regulatory regions, transcribed regions, and or other functional sequence regions " . In common usage, the term gene often refers to what is known more accurately as an allele.
The notion of a gene has evolved with the science of genetics, which began when Gregor Mendel noticed that biological variations are inherited from parent organisms as specific, discrete traits. The biological entity responsible for defining traits was termed a gene, but the biological basis for inheritance remained unknown until DNA was identified as the genetic material in the 1940s. All organisms have many genes corresponding to many different biological traits, some of which are immediately visible, such as eye color or number of limbs, and some of which are not, such as blood type or increased risk for specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that comprise life.
In cells, a gene is a portion of DNA that contains both "coding" sequences that determine what the gene does, and "non-coding" sequences that determine when the gene is active (expressed). When a gene is active, the coding and non-coding sequences are copied in a process called transcription, producing an RNA copy of the gene's information. This piece of RNA can then direct the synthesis of proteins via the genetic code. In other cases, the RNA is used directly, for example as part of the ribosome. The molecules resulting from gene expression, whether RNA or protein, are known as gene products, and are responsible for the development and functioning of all living things.
In more technical terms, a gene is a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance, and is associated with regulatory regions, transcribed regions and/or other functional sequence regions. The physical development and phenotype of organisms can be thought of as a product of genes interacting with each other and with the environment. A concise definition of a gene, taking into account complex patterns of regulation and transcription, genic conservation and non-coding RNA genes, has been proposed by Gerstein et al.: "A gene is a union of genomic sequences encoding a coherent set of potentially overlapping functional products".
For more information about Gene, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.