Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, particularly chromosomes and DNA.
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Which bacteria have the highest mutation rate?
From my reading on M. tuberculosis, I know that this organism has a pretty high mutation rate due to uncorrected sloppy replication, which leads to a high rate of development of spontaneous resistance ...
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0answers
48 views
effect of background selection on promoter regions compared to distant enhancers?
Has anyone looked at the effect of background selection on the levels of conservation of promoter regions compared to distant enhancers? Do promoter regions have a higher conservation due to ...
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2answers
405 views
Autosomal Recessive Trait when skipping one generation
I learned recently that given a pedigree it is possible to tell whether a disease is autosomal recessive by observing if the trait skips a generation. If the disease does skip a generation, then the ...
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0answers
58 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 ...
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0answers
84 views
Extreme examples of protein translation/use coupling/decoupling?
What are known extreme examples of protein translation/effect coupling/decoupling? For example, examples of proteins that are immediately used at the time the have been translated and vice versa, ...
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1answer
48 views
What are treatable foetal conditions during pregnancy?
What are different foetal conditions during pregnancy that could be treated with appropriate prenatal genetic testing?
I only know that pregnant women are encouraged to take certain supplements to ...
4
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1answer
155 views
T7 promoter leakiness
Can a gene be expressed under the T7 promoter in an E. coli strain (e.g. DH5 alpha), which does not have the T7 polymerase gene encoded in its genome? In other words, is T7 promoter leaky?
To be ...
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1answer
211 views
Are there examples of the green beard effect in humans?
Green-beard effects are genes that:
Produce an effect that can be detected
Produce preference to others with the same effect
Are there any examples of this in humans?
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3answers
1k views
Do we get 1/4 of our genes from each grandparent?
I know that we get half of our genes from each parent, but does it necessarily mean we get 1/4 of our genes from each grandparent? Or is it possible that we might get say 30% from one grandparent, 20% ...
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51 views
Relative Property of Alleles
If there are three different alleles to a gene, is it possible that the first is dominant to the second, but recessive to the third?
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1answer
136 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
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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
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1answer
116 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 ...
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1answer
66 views
What are Haplogroups?
What exactly does the term Haplogroup or Haplotype means?
How is it claimed that people belonging to the same haplogroups have common ancestors?
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3answers
922 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 ...
6
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2answers
69 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
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2answers
123 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 ...
6
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1answer
121 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 ...
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0answers
35 views
Is there a gene that starts meiosis 2?
Yesterday I thought about a question and asked it to my friend. The question was
which gene is completely the same for a male cell that made meiosis 1 recently.
My answer was the gene that starts ...
6
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2answers
91 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 ...
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1answer
233 views
How many gigabytes of DNA are there on earth?
The human genome is about 770 MB, the C. elegans genome is about 100 MB, the yeast S. cerevisiae is about 12 MB. Different other genomes have been sequenced: how many GB of genomic DNA we have now?
...
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0answers
72 views
What is the canonical reference text for genetics terminology? [closed]
If I were looking for a reference book focused on genetics in order to look up terminology, what would be the canonical text?
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1answer
483 views
Co-transformation of plasmids from the same incompatibility group
Can two plasmids with the same origin of replication (for example pBR322 ori) and thus from the same incompatibility group be successfully co-transformed in E. coli? What are the mechanisms that would ...
2
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2answers
89 views
Gametes of two different species
I always wondered why gametes from two different species dont fuse together to form an offspring. eg a donkey (sperm) and a female dog (egg)
I know this is not possible but I'm just curious.
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0answers
34 views
How many pandemic H1N1 2009 virus sequences were submitted by the Indian NIV as of May 10, 2010? [closed]
The handout I was following is maddening. It says; "Go to the NCBI home page and select 'All Resources (A-Z)' and choose GenBank. Follow the NCBI Flu Resource link to determine how many pandemic H1N1 ...
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1answer
68 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? ...
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3answers
189 views
Number of beneficial mutations cataloged?
I can see from Wikipedia that there are possibly thousands of harmful mutations that have been cataloged and linked to disease. There are also unnumbered neutral mutations. But, does anyone know how ...
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1answer
222 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 ...
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1answer
77 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?
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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 ...
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1answer
67 views
What exactly is meant by the expression “differentially expressed”?
As far as I've seen, this expression is almost always used in relation to gene expression profiling. Unfortunately, I have no background in this area. Can someone please explain this in layman terms?
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0answers
41 views
Determine which gene is in the middle complementation [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Crossing mutant strains on minimal media problem
I'm studying this problem for my genetics final:
My Attempt: The answer for part B is met2 and the answer for part C ...
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0answers
70 views
How to find Dmax (genetics problem) [closed]
My attempt: I'm not sure this is right but this is what i did. I found the allele frequencies to be:
A=0.4
B-0.3
a=0.1
b=0.2
I think to find Dmax I just multiply the two alleles with the larges ...
8
votes
1answer
84 views
Why can't we breed watermelons without any remaining seeds in the flesh?
Watermelon is just starting to come in season in the northeastern U.S., and having a seedless watermelon is convenient. The only downside is, the "seedless" almost always still have the immature, ...
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1answer
298 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, ...
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1answer
138 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 ...
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1answer
127 views
Have any mutations or genetic loci been associated with exceptional longevity in humans?
Individuals that avoid age-related diseases into later life are known as 'exceptional survivors', and have increased longevity compared to their 'controls' (those that were born at a similar time, yet ...
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votes
4answers
516 views
Why do men have nipples?
I'd be tempted to call nipples in men vestigial, but that suggests they have no modern function. They do have a function, of course, but only in women. So why do men (and all male mammals) have them?
...
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1answer
208 views
Do trees age on a microscopic level?
Most animals age via at least two mechinisms:
at a "macroscopic" level, basically wear and tear to the point where (on evolutionary time scales) it's more genetically advantageous to optimize for ...
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4answers
113 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, ...
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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 ...
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1answer
102 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.
...
8
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1answer
440 views
On the genetics behind caste marriages
I am in India where it is typically a custom to marry within one's caste. Basically the caste system originated with roots in people's professions - Each of priests, carpenters, troupers, etc had a ...
6
votes
4answers
174 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 ...
5
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2answers
546 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 ...
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1answer
129 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 ...
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2answers
184 views
Are there differences in DNA between humans of today and humans from 2000 years ago?
Are there any significant differences in our genome compared to the genes of our ancestors from 1000-2000 years ago?
And if there are significant differences, do they result in significant ...
9
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1answer
2k views
Origin, or source, of rhesus negative in human blood
This is my first post here, so please be gentle. I recently learned that I have Rh- blood (I'm A-), and was idly looking into blood types on Wikipedia. I was surprised to find that relatively few ...
3
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1answer
136 views
Predicting progeny of recessive mutations using recombination
I was asked this question on a test and got it wrong, but I'd like to know how to do it. The answers are shown in the blanks below:
You are studying two recessive mutations in the fruit fly D.
...
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1answer
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Pedigree Probability of Autosomal Recessive Trait
Here is a pedigree:
The trait is autosomal recessive.
The question is: What is the probability that the bottom 2 people (4 and 5) have a child with the trait?
I tried doing ...
