Genome projects and sequencing

• The genome is all of the genetic information in an organism or cell.
• Genome projects use technology to determine the complete sequence of bases that make up the DNA of an organism.
• Uses of sequenced genomes are as follows;

  • sequenced genomes can be used to compare within a particular species this can highlight disease risk or identify mutations that cause disease.
  • Comparisons of genomes between species can be used to explain evolutionary relationships between species.
• The sequencing of genomes can allow the proteome to be determined.
• sequencing of proteomes is only simple within small genomes and has helped to identify anti-gens of viruses. this can be used to produce vaccines much faster as well as monitor mutations and variations as the pathogen evolves.
• inside eukaryotes large sections of the genomes is made up of DNA that does not code for any proteins. This DNA is often referred to junk DNA and contains regulatory genes , genes that code for tRNA , rRNA and large repeating sequences left over from evolution and repeat infection.
• it is hard to determine the proteome of an organism as it is unknown which sections are exons (coding DNA)
• Old vs new sequencing methods;

  • old methods were labour intensive whereas new methods are automated
  • it used to be very expensive to sequence genes but now it is cheaper
  • now it is more cost-effective to large scale sequencing whereas in the past it was only able to do small scale.