Content of the human genome and functional roles

Question 1

Protein coding regions

Answer 1

Region of the genome that produces different kinds of proteins. The produced protein will perform different cellular activities either as enzymes/structural components in different entities

Question 2

Non-protein coding regions

Answer 2

Regions in the genome that produce different RNA molecules. RNAs are responsible for structural performance and regulatory roles

Question 3

Pseudogenes

Answer 3

Degenerate genes that acquired many deleterious mutations over time, genes encode non-functional proteins

Question 4

Binding sites for ligands

Answer 4

Regions (i.e., promoters) that are targeted by various DNA interacting proteins (e.g., enzymes/ regulatory proteins), when binding, ligands will tend to perform regulatory roles in the case of transcription factors activating/ repressing gene expression

Question 5

Repetitive element

Answer 5

Repeated DNA sequences tend to constitute the largest component of any genome. Some are functional (i.e., rRNA genes), the majority are non-functional or the function remains unknown (i.e., minisatellites and microsatellites)