Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, particularly chromosomes and DNA.
7
votes
1answer
67 views
Do antisense transcripts have different names than their sense strand transcripts?
I want to find which genes in the human genome can potentially be complementary to a transcript that could act as antisense transcript inhibtion? Are cis-NATs (naturally occuring anti-sense ...
7
votes
1answer
55 views
Why Can't A Male Mule Have Offspring?
I've read that female mules can sometimes have offspring, but that male mules are incapable of doing so. Why is that the case? Is their sperm not capable of entering the egg or is their a genetic ...
7
votes
1answer
141 views
Finding DNA from Amino Acid sequence problem
My attempt: First I took the single letter AA codes and made them amino acids. So, the first one is Trp which is 5'-UGG-3'. From this I got the DNA sequence 3'-CCA-5'. However, the correct ...
7
votes
1answer
109 views
Linkage and LD: quantitative or qualitative?
My understanding is that the concept "genetic linkage" can be expressed in quantitative form, like:
A predisposing gene X was found in close genetic linkage to Y.
...
7
votes
1answer
80 views
obesity risk and single gene polymorphisms
I read a fairly recent meta-analysis of studies into the association between adult obesity and polymorphisms of the FTO gene (Peng et al., 2011). The paper looked at 59 studies and found that "FTO may ...
7
votes
1answer
133 views
What is the difference between copy number changes with and without allelic imbalance?
I require some clarification on copy number aberrations (structural gain and loss in chromosomes). From what I understand, gain/loss per se can be divided into two types.
Consider two alleles, A and ...
7
votes
1answer
90 views
How is the exogenous DNA protected from degradation during bacterial transformation?
During transformation, a bacterium can take up DNA from its environment. A small fraction of bacterial species are known to be naturally competent, meaning that they can engage in this sort of ...
7
votes
0answers
62 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
4answers
185 views
What's the aim of genetically modifying of foods/organisms?
On news, articles etc. experts talking about Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms often mentions about their disadvantages like,
their potential to harm human health
allergies may become more ...
6
votes
4answers
161 views
Can sexual reproduction create new genetic information?
Is there a small chance that in sexual reproduction a new allele forms in the off-spring that was not present in either of the parents, or are the alleles in the offspring always from at least one of ...
6
votes
4answers
117 views
Genetic effects on personality
It is said that genes are partly responsible for the choices we make in our life; our genes help to create our environment, and then that environment can influence our personality. So, beside genes, ...
6
votes
1answer
174 views
Does DNA contain information beyond protein synthesis?
It's well known that genetic information is stored in DNA. As far as I know, DNA only has information at the protein level. What about higher levels, such as organelles, cells, tissue, organs? Is ...
6
votes
1answer
93 views
What are the different ways an exon gets spliced?
Exons are produced by more than one mechanism, e.g. splicing out introns after transcription, if I remember correctly. Please list all mechanisms.
6
votes
2answers
71 views
Does the word “polymorphism” refer to the gene, the phenotype, or both?
In genetics, does the word "polymorphism" properly refer to genes, to phenotypes, or both? For example, if there are two alleles that lead to differences in the structure of the D2 neuroreceptor, ...
6
votes
4answers
171 views
Chromosomes are of different size but why do all chromosomes have similar GC percentage?
When I browsed NCBI I saw a pattern: even if the chromosome sizes, number of genes, and number of proteins are different, GC% in chromosomes tend to be similar. The examples are linked below.
Yeast,
...
6
votes
1answer
135 views
What is Mendelian Randomization, and how is it used to infer causality in epidemiology?
Studies of human traits and diseases are inherently confined to observational studies, known as epidemiological studies. This can make it very hard to determine what actually causes a particular ...
6
votes
2answers
93 views
phylogenetic analysis of gene enrichment?
Are there any tools to do phylogenetic analysis of gene enrichment? This is, I have a list of genes from an experiment performed in several species, with a z-score that can be described as ...
6
votes
1answer
82 views
What is the effective relatedness of inbreeding?
If a human inbreeds with a relative, how distant does the relative have to be before the homozygosity in the child is no higher than if the mate were randomly chosen from the global population?
6
votes
3answers
101 views
How to map the Gene name to its Gene Symbol?
I am learning in Gene data lately so I apologize for the silly questions in advance. I read a paper for a cancer on human which found some important genes. For example, the paper listed one of genes ...
6
votes
2answers
998 views
What is the function of the RNA primer in DNA replication?
During DNA replication, RNA primase puts an RNA primer in the lagging strand. What is the function of this RNA primer? Why can't the enzymes put DNA fragments directly?
6
votes
1answer
125 views
Are there dog breeds that are so far apart genetically that they can't produce viable offspring?
Obviously, a very large dog would have difficulties mating with a very small dog and vice versa.
But putting that problem aside (using, say, insemination), considering the large variation of dog ...
6
votes
2answers
88 views
How are Genetic Circuits Modelled?
I've read a recent Nature Methods paper by Moon T.S. et al, in which a synthetic genetic circuit consisting of layered logic gates was created. For example, the paper, a circuit is modelled in Figure ...
6
votes
1answer
375 views
What do the variants on the PolyT sequence mean?
My son has been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. I am not looking for medical advice regarding his condition, but I am very interested in understanding the genetic causes of his condition.
In ...
6
votes
1answer
68 views
Are all chromosomes equally susceptible to mutation?
The humans have been around for a few million years, other organisms longer yet. Changes that occur in the genome and propagate (may) eventually throw a new species ... or atleast branch off the old ...
6
votes
1answer
96 views
What is the difference between xDNA and yDNA?
Wikipedia states that:
xDNA contains expanded bases, in which a benzene ring has been added, which may pair with canon bases, resulting in four possible base-pairs (8 bases:xA-T,xT-A,xC-G,xG-C, 16 ...
6
votes
1answer
72 views
Bicoid regulation of hunchback
I'm learning about development via the example of Drosophila embryogenesis. I understand that bicoid regulates hunchback, among other genes. My question whether the regulation is direct or indirect? ...
6
votes
1answer
107 views
What determines the colors and patterns of a clam shell?
Earlier this week I was looking at some bivalve shells that had ornate patterns which ranged in color from a light orange-pink to a deep orange-red. Here is an image I found online that seems to be of ...
6
votes
2answers
125 views
Effect of single-gene overexpression in the cell's response
Which are the factors that modify the overall gene differential expression by introducing a vector for single-gene overexpression?
If you overexpress a gene for a protein involved in signal ...
5
votes
2answers
597 views
Altering the human genome
I recently had a conversation with a rather unusual gentleman who was, let's say, more than a little partial to conspiracy theories. He has this idea that governments are lowering "nanowires" from ...
5
votes
3answers
133 views
Can genetically modified genes jump to bacteria in the eater's intestine?
The Guardian ran an article a while back talking about GM gene's jumping to bacteria in an eater's intestine. Has other research confirmed this phenomenon?
5
votes
1answer
318 views
The genetic and physiological origins of laughter?
This Wikipedia article defines laughter in many terms, such as...
"a visual expression of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy"
and
"a part of human behavior regulated by the brain, ...
5
votes
2answers
80 views
Can any species be bred selectively/engineered to become as diverse looking as dogs?
I've done some research and it appears that dogs are the most diverse looking single species of mammals. The questions that interest me is - are dogs special in respect to genes/gene activation ...
5
votes
1answer
98 views
Are there any DNA base sequences that are fully conserved between the genomes of all humans?
That is, they don't differ throughout the entire population. I understand of course that we can't DNA sequence every human, so by "fully" I mean there's an incredibly small probability of there being ...
5
votes
1answer
118 views
Is sexual reproduction outside the same biological family possible? Ever successfully occured?
Is there an example of two species taxonomically classified in different biological families sucessfully sexually reproducing viable offspring? If not, is there an example of where reproduction ...
5
votes
1answer
353 views
Genetic carrier Pedigree of Recessive Traits
A human male and female couple with normal colored ears discover that, in both of their families, their fathers (who have normal ears) each had siblings with red ears. Red ears is a rare autosomal ...
5
votes
1answer
142 views
What is the relative power of GWAS studies in different species?
I would like to know of any publication studying the relative power of GWAS studies in different species. For example, I've seen reports that say genotyping and GWAS in dog breeds is much more ...
5
votes
1answer
251 views
What generates variation in a species?
What is the biological mechanism behind the variation within sexually reproducing species? Obviously, the children are combinations, to differing degrees, of their parents. But how does the variation ...
5
votes
1answer
557 views
What is the distinction between F' plasmid and R plasmid?
Is there a difference between an F' plasmid that has taken up a chromosomal gene that conveys antibiotic resistance, and an R plasmid? Is a bacterium containing an R plasmid and yet lacking an F+ ...
5
votes
2answers
65 views
Why are males more likely than females to have autism spectrum disorder?
The male to female ratio in autism spectrum disorder is around 4:1. However it seems ASD is not a simple X-linked disorder.
Then how is it possible males are more susceptible than females, if the ...
5
votes
2answers
92 views
What's the difference between shotgun sequencing and clone based sequencing?
What are the main differences between shotgun sequencing and clone based sequencing?
5
votes
1answer
52 views
Can an organism obtaining a part of its genome via horizontal gene transfer be called a “hybrid”?
Wikipedia definition of "hybrid" offers many competing definitions. But most seem to be centered on sexual-reproduction gene transfer.
Is there an official (in a textbook or widely accepted peer ...
5
votes
1answer
119 views
Have there been attempts to identify Chomsky's “language mutation” in humans?
I'm not versed in either biology or linguistics so please forgive any naiveties I may commit.
I've learned that Noam Chomsky thinks that language is a result of a single genetic mutation in humans. ...
5
votes
1answer
59 views
Are there eukaryotes without introns?
This question on the function of introns in eukaryotic genes made me think: I know that more basal organisms have smaller introns and fewer alternatively spliced exons compared to mammals. But are ...
4
votes
3answers
762 views
Is the theory of evolution being disproved by bats?
For some species the Darwin's theory evolution makes perfect sense. I can easily imagine how, for example, the giraffe has evolved to its current appearance: the natural selection was favoring ...
4
votes
3answers
94 views
How to create a collection of anonymous sequences for teaching and testing? [closed]
I am looking for a large collection (>1000) of sequence files (eg. FASTA) from any real organism or a tool to create such a collection.
The sequence files would be used for teaching and for testing ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
How does Artificial Selection work?
As far as I know for evolution to work mutations are necessary. Mutations are the raw material on which natural selection works.
But mutations are always completely random and human beings have no ...
4
votes
1answer
148 views
What phenotypes can arise from gender-related aneuploidy?
Humans normally have 46 chromosomes (two copies - one from each parent - of each of the 24 chromosomes: [1:22] + [XX or XY]).
Aneuploidy is an abnormal number of chromosomes - Down's syndromes is an ...
4
votes
2answers
97 views
How is gene expression estimated?
I'm reading this fantastic article on estimating body time: Molecular-timetable methods for detection of body
time and rhythm disorders from single-time-point
genome-wide expression profiles and one ...
4
votes
2answers
93 views
Hershey and Chase experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QJ4CjFsflA
This is a link to Hershey and Chase experiment. According to this experiment, we conclude that DNA is the genetic material. But how do we conclude that DNA ...
4
votes
1answer
227 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 ...
