Lecture 1 + 2 Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is genomics?
Analysis of genome sequences to study the structure, function, and evolution of genes and genomes
What is proteomics?
Analysis of proteins present in cells under a given set of conditions and studies their function and interactions
What is bioinformatics?
Different types of software used to analyse DNA/protein sequences
When studying organisms, what are the 4 things they must be?
Easy to maintain
Short life-span
Able to modify genetically
Have the specific genome sequence available
What are commonly used model organisms?
Yeast
Drosophila
Zebrafish
Mice
Small plants
Nematodes
What is a gene?
A unit of heredity
What are alleles?
Different forms of the same gene
What does ‘wild type’ mean?
The phenotype/genotype that is mostly seen in organisms in the wild OR can be the ‘non-disease’ genotype/phenotype
Why can some alleles be recessive?
They contain non-functioning proteins which could be covered by the dominant wild type alleles, leading to disease (only in the case of homozygosity)
What causes some alleles to be dominant?
They contain a ‘disruptive protein’ which can block the activity of the wild type alleles, leading to disease (in both heterozygosity and homozygosity)
Can mutant alleles produce abnormal mRNA?
They can produce both normal AND abnormal mRNA which produces defective protein, BUT this can be overridden by dominant alleles as they can produce enough functioning proteins
What is Mendel’s law of segregation?
Each gene is represented twice in diploids (one gene on each chromosome), the two chromosomes in a homologous pair are separated in meiosis (this produces haploids with one allele each)
