A series of DNA bases in a chromosome that codes for a poly-peptide sequence.
21
votes
4answers
250 views
How are the boundaries of a gene determined?
What statistical processes and methods are used by geneticists/molecular biologists to know where one gene starts and one ends?
14
votes
4answers
1k views
How many genes do we share with our mother?
Somewhere I have read we share more than 99% of our genes with every other other person and 98% of our genes with chimpanzees. What does this mean? Don't we share 50% of our genes with our mother and ...
9
votes
1answer
79 views
Which patterns do I have to avoid when modifying the 3'-UTR?
I want to change a pre-miRNA sequence (in my case the pre-miRNA is encoding in a 3'UTR of a gene) and then put it in a lentivirus to see if it is still processed.
After modification (permutation of ...
8
votes
2answers
105 views
What is the Edward O. Wilson fuss about?
I have just read this article on E. O. Wilson and I don't understand what the difference is between what he is arguing and "standard" natural selection.
I read "the extended phenotype" some years ago ...
7
votes
2answers
111 views
Is it possible to trace of the ancestry of a person by only using his/her genetic information?
Is it possible to trace the descent of a person only using his/her genome sequence?
7
votes
1answer
43 views
Which functional annotations could be useful?
Analyzing a genome, for a generic gene, which functional annotations (e.g from Gene Ontology) can help understanding its meaning/function or, at least, provide helpful informations?
Annotations of ...
7
votes
0answers
59 views
paralogue genes in genome-wide association studies?
Has anybody tested if there is an over-representation of significant paralogous copies of genes -- either tandemly-arranged or in different chromosomes -- in the list of significantly associated genes ...
6
votes
2answers
168 views
Gene & Protein nomenclature: N-Myc, c-Myc, et. al
Can someone explain (or point me to an explanation of) exactly what is meant by all the different symbols I see used for writing genes and proteins?
I think I know that for genes, we use an italic ...
4
votes
1answer
203 views
Genetic engineering for insulin production
In order to put human DNA inside a bacteria in order to have it create Insulin, from what type of cell would you need to take the gene for insulin?
I thought it should be from any somatic cell, since ...
4
votes
1answer
79 views
How do the variable portions of antibody genes look in cells which don't produce antibodies?
There are several families of antibodies found in mammals. They may have two or more antibody domains which contain heavy and light chains. The variable regions of the light and heavy chains genes ...
4
votes
1answer
121 views
Non-monotonic knock-out effects in prokaryotes
Typically, when performing gene-knockout, the experimenters select one gene to remove/replace-with-junk and then see if the prokaryote can still undergo fission. If it continues to reproduce then the ...
4
votes
1answer
49 views
Online toolkit that provides functional similarity scores (in the form of a matrix) between two functional gene sets in the context of gene ontology
Where can I find an online toolkit that provides functional similarity scores (in the form of a matrix) between two functional gene sets in the context of gene ontology?
I have tried the following:
...
3
votes
2answers
75 views
How do proteins and genes participate in learning?
I am a computer scientist that studies biology and bioinformatics.
In the last weeks, I have been trying to study new research directions, and I would like to deepen my knowledge on the role and ...
3
votes
1answer
57 views
How might gene clusters like the lac operon evolve?
The obvious answer for a gene cluster is gene duplication and mutation of one or both genes. But the genes in the lac operon seem not be so functionally/structurally similar (as compared to the Hox ...
3
votes
1answer
144 views
Can parents' learned traits be transmitted genetically?
I am wondering whether a behavioral trait (e.g. fear or stress experienced in the lifetime of the parent) can be transmitted genetically to its offspring?
I understand that a behavioral tendency for ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
Macroevolution vs. microevolution
Where is the line usually drawn between macroevolution and microevolution?
I thought that, although similar processes govern both, the line was at the species level, with macroevolution being changes ...
2
votes
1answer
22 views
Have novel interactions or pathways been predicted by GRN or PPI data and later confirmed by experiment?
I've been learning about the gene regulatory network (GRN) and protein-protein interaction network (PPI) recently.
I've found a huge amount of extremely interesting papers about how biological network ...
2
votes
1answer
42 views
What is the point of being selection-free?
I'm reading "Highly efficient endogenous human gene correction using designed zinc finger nucleases" by Urnov et al. They propose a way to use zinc finger proteins for gene therapy. They repeatedly ...
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Role of Fbx15 in ES cells and its use in assaying for iPS cells (Yamanaka paper and others)?
I am trying to understand the assay for iPS cells in the Takahashi & Yamanaka 2006 paper.
They inserted a beta-geo cassette, which contains the neomycin resistance gene, into the Fbx15 gene. The ...
0
votes
1answer
58 views
Would two species of yeast with similar genome sizes have the same number of genes or chromosomes?
Similar organisms generally have similar genome sizes. Given this, would two species of yeast have the same number of genes and chromosomes?
Edit: Fixed with thanks to @daniel-standage
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Confusion related to the use of PCA to determine the background network
I was reading this paper related to use of gene expressions for predicting the drug response. I have this confusion, the paper has used PCA on the covariance matrix formed by the genes to get what is ...
