News tagged with genome
Grass to gas: Researchers' genome map speeds biofuel development
Researchers at the University of Georgia have taken a major step in the ongoing effort to find sources of cleaner, renewable energy by mapping the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus, a large perenn ...
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Deadly bird parasite evolves at exceptionally fast rate
A new study of a devastating bird disease that spread from poultry to house finches in the mid-1990s reveals that the bacteria responsible for the disease evolves at an exceptionally fast rate. What's more, ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Transformational fruit fly genome catalog completed
Scientists searching for the genomics version of the holy grail more insight into predicting how an animal's genes affect physical or behavioral traits now have a reference manual that should ...
Feb 08, 2012 |
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Without second wave of brown fat, young mice can't live without mama
For all those who have wondered where they'd be without their mothers, a study reported in the February Cell Metabolism puts a whole new spin on the question. Mice whose mothers pass along a mutant copy of a single imprin ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Neanderthal demise due to many influences, including cultural changes: study
As an ice age crept upon them thousands of years ago, Neanderthals and modern human ancestors expanded their territory ranges across Asia and Europe to adapt to the changing environment.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2010, Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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New insight from whole-genome sequencing of Europe's 2011 E. coli outbreaks
Using whole-genome sequencing, a team led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Broad Institute has traced the path of the E. coli outbreak that sickened thousands and killed over 50 people in Ger ...
Feb 06, 2012 |
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Drugs targeting chromosomal instability may fight a particular breast cancer subtype
Another layer in breast cancer genetics has been peeled back. A team of researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC) led by Richard G. Pestell, M.D., PhD., FACP, Director of the KCC and Chair of the Department of ...
Feb 06, 2012 |
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Researchers weigh methods to more accurately measure genome sequencing
Lost in the euphoria of the 2003 announcement that the human genome had been sequenced was a fundamental question: how can we be sure that an individual's genome has been read correctly?
Feb 03, 2012 |
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Whole exome sequencing identifies cause of metabolic disease
Sequencing a patient's entire genome to discover the source of his or her disease is not routine yet. But geneticists are getting close.
Feb 03, 2012 |
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Parasites or not? Transposable elements in fruit flies
The problem of parasitism occurs at all levels right down to the DNA scale. Genomes may contain up to 80 percent "foreign" DNA but details of the mechanisms by which this enters the host genome and how hosts attempt to combat ...
Feb 03, 2012 |
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Scientists coax shy microorganisms to stand out in a crowd
The communities of marine microorganisms that make up half the biomass in the oceans and are responsible for half the photosynthesis the world over, mostly remain enigmatic. A few abundant groups have had ...
Feb 02, 2012 |
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Circular RNAs more common than previously thought
In the classical model of gene expression, the genetic script encoded in our genomes is expressed in each cell in the form of RNA molecules, each consisting of a linear string of chemical "bases". It may be time to revise ...
Feb 01, 2012 |
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3D mapping of human genome to help understand diseases
Genome Institute of Singapore’s (GIS) Associate Director of Genomic Technologies, Dr. Yijun RUAN, led a continuing study on the human genome spatial/structural configuration, revealing how genes interact/communicate ...
Feb 01, 2012 |
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Weightlessness weighs heavy on genes -- a fly's perspective
On Earth all biology is subjected to gravity. Some biological systems require gravity for correct orientation (geotropism: plants grow up, roots grow down). In the absence of gravity even human biology is affected: astronauts ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Genome
In classical genetics, the genome of a diploid organism including eukarya refers to a full set of chromosomes or genes in a gamete; thereby, a regular somatic cell contains two full sets of genomes. In haploid organisms, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and mitochondria, a cell contains only a single set of the genome, usually in a single circular or contiguous linear DNA (or RNA for retroviruses). In modern molecular biology the genome of an organism is its hereditary information encoded in DNA (or, for retroviruses, RNA).
The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the name to be a portmanteau of the words gene and chromosome; however, many related -ome words already existed, such as biome and rhizome, forming a vocabulary into which genome fits systematically.
More precisely, the genome of an organism is a complete genetic sequence on one set of chromosomes; for example, one of the two sets that a diploid individual carries in every somatic cell. The term genome can be applied specifically to mean that stored on a complete set of nuclear DNA (i.e., the "nuclear genome") but can also be applied to that stored within organelles that contain their own DNA, as with the mitochondrial genome or the chloroplast genome. Additionally, the genome can comprise nonchromosomal genetic elements such as viruses, plasmids, and transposable elements. When people say that the genome of a sexually reproducing species has been "sequenced", typically they are referring to a determination of the sequences of one set of autosomes and one of each type of sex chromosome, which together represent both of the possible sexes. Even in species that exist in only one sex, what is described as "a genome sequence" may be a composite read from the chromosomes of various individuals. In general use, the phrase "genetic makeup" is sometimes used conversationally to mean the genome of a particular individual or organism. The study of the global properties of genomes of related organisms is usually referred to as genomics, which distinguishes it from genetics which generally studies the properties of single genes or groups of genes.
Both the number of base pairs and the number of genes vary widely from one species to another, and there is little connection between the two (an observation known as the C-value paradox). At present, the highest known number of genes is around 60,000, for the protozoan causing trichomoniasis (see List of sequenced eukaryotic genomes), almost three times as many as in the human genome.
An analogy to the human genome stored on DNA is that of instructions stored in a book:
For more information about Genome, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.