Human Genomics

Question 1

What is the genome of an organism?

Answer 1

The genetic information that is encoded into its DNA and can be inherited by its offspring.
A genome is defined as the genes that code for proteins and other DNA sequences that do not code for proteins.

Question 2

What is bioinformatics?

Answer 2

The use of computers and statistics in analysis of sequence data.

Question 3

What is the Polymerase Chain Reaction?

Answer 3

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a laboratory technique for the amplification of DNA.

Question 4

What happens during PCR?

Answer 4

• DNA is heated to separated the two strands
• the separated strands are then cooled to allow primers to bind to target sequences
• heat tolerant DNA polymerase replicates the region of DNA that has been primed
• repeated cycles of heating and cooling amplify the region of DNA.
• a cycle of PCR doubles the number of copies of a region of DNA.

Question 5

What heat tolerant enzyme is used during PCR?

Answer 5

Taq Polymerase

Question 6

What are DNA probes?

Answer 6

Short, single-stranded fragments of DNA that are complementary to a specific DNA sequence.

Question 7

How can fragments of DNA be separated?

Answer 7

By gel electrophoresis.

Question 8

What is the purpose of fluorescent labelling?

Answer 8

Allows the detection of DNA fragments amplified by PCR and separated by electrophoresis.