8.3 Genome projects

• Sequencing projects have read the genomes of a wide range of organisms, including humans
• Determining the genome of simpler organisms allows the sequences of the proteins that derive from the genetic code (the proteome) of the organism to be determined
• This may have many applications, including the identification of potential antigens for use in vaccine production
• In more complex organisms, the presence of non-coding DNA and of regulatory genes means that knowledge of the genome cannot easily be translated into the proteome
• Sequencing methods are continuously updated and have become automated
• What is a genome?

  Any two from:

  1 All the genes

  2 On a (full/haploid) set of chromosomes/ genes in mitochondria or chloroplasts

  OR

  1 The base sequences

  2 On a (full/haploid) set of chromosomes/all of the DNA