Gene Definition and 137 Threads

I may mess up this question, and this is not my strong field of knowledge. I am wanting to understand different ways of genes not expressing themselves. So far I have come across two ways this happens (perhaps there are more?) - "transcription factors that inhibit gene transcription" - "genes...

Hi, One of my cousins had a baby almost six months ago. The baby's father has straight hair and mother has very curly hair. After almost six months, the baby's hair started looking somewhat wavy. By "wavy" I mean a little curly. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see which gene is dominant - curly...

I have been told that the traditional restriction digestion cloning method, where you use restriction enzyme to produce sticky ends in the gene of interest and the plasmid vector, is vulnerable to contamination. The lecturer proceeds to conclude that Gibson Assembly Cloning is therefore a...

I've been struggling, no matter what I try to do I can't come up with a solution. The answer is in situ, but in my mind it would work perfectly fine. The only thing we would do is just use an RNA probe complementary to the gene we are trying to detect and it should light up the moment the gene...

Recently I asked if prime editing can be used to reverse the random mutations we accumulate with aging(https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/can-prime-editing-fix-every-harmful-mutation-in-all-our-cells.1003279/) but now I have a different question. Can we simply replace our genes to get rid of...

How can current gene editing technologies like Prime Editing can be used to reverse all age related mutations that negatively affect some type of cell like neurons?. According to this article (you need to click on the "toggle reader view" button in firefox in order to read it without registering...

Is Multiple Allelism and Gene Polymorphism same ?If not then why?

I don't know much about biology but the following two questions have always puzzled me. 1: If each human body cell contains the same genes (from 20,000 to 25,000) then how different cells in different parts of body do different things. A liver cell, for example, does not have the same...

The New England Journal of Medicine published two papers showing data for successful treatment of a handful of patients with sickle cell disease or β- thalassemia using gene therapy techniques. Both teams used the strategy of inhibiting the BCL11a transcription factor in blood cells, which...

Is it more probable that giruses (giant viruses) acquired their cellular apparatus from another cell, or that they once were a functioning cell, but degraded over time, parasitizing other cells? In the course of evolution viruses emerged many times. Viruses evolved on multiple, independent...

I know that human genome sequencing was done by 2001. Inintially there were Maxam-Gilberth technique, then Sanger's technique and then finally NGS techniques have made sequening faster and efficient. My question is, though we are able to sequence the whole genome, how have scientists arrived at...

Hello. Yesterday I was making some calculations, and I started to wonder the average number of alleles per gene the human specie have today. The best question would be how many mutations per base or how many alleles in an average 1000 base gene, as genes vary in size. What made me wonder this...

Homework Statement A bacteria that normally divides every 20 minutes express gene X. The production rate of protein X is 5nM/min. The protein is stable and does not degrade. What is the concentration of X in the steady state?The same bacteria enter into a stress state at t=0 for 3 hours...

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/dont-fear-https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/dont-fear-crispr-new-gene-editing-technologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/-new-gene-editing-technologies-wont-lead-designer-babies/ is a newly developed tool that allows researchers to easily make changes to...

Couldn't figure out which category to put this in so I put it here. Today, the Product Owner stumbled across a feature that was working correctly, but should not have been. A Yes/No button was defaulting to 'Yes'. It was eventually supposed to be implemented that way, but no one was assigned...

I've read in a few places that acetylation of histones creates transcription activation rather than repression (the common example being: H3K9). What I am curious, with the absence of this acetylation (I'm guessing this would the process de-acetylation), do the genes that were previously...

What determines if a gene or trait will be dominant over another or not? For instance, we take the example of widow's peak. This gene has two alleles. One for widow's peak which is the dominant one, and another for straight line, which is the recessive one. But why the widow's peak is dominant...

Why would anyone like to intoduce a antibiotic gene in a bacteria if it will make it resistant to antibiotics which is not of any advantages to humans?

Some people are more susceptible to allergies and common cold than others. For example, my mother and I suffer from dust allergies and blocked nostrils throughout the year. In fact, last year or so, my mother had to be hospitalised as her lungs had become stiff due to sudden allergy. Almost...

Watching dynamics of RNA expression - paper describing a visualization technique. Movie 1 from supplemental information: in a zebrafish embryo, DNA is stained with red fluorescence and carboxyfluoresceinaed Morpholino oligos targeting dre-miR-430 emit visible green fluorescence when they reach...

Today (AUG 1) is RNA Day, an international celebration of one of the most versatile biomolecules in existence. What are some areas of RNA research that excite you most? Some of the most intriguing areas of current research to me (with example links for further reading): The role of RNAs in...

I was studying evolution and speciation and an example was given in my textbook. It said that there is a species of red beetles and through variation a green beetle is formed and then is naturally selected as red beetles are easily seen by crows and green are not. My question is where does the...

Hi. If we want cell to accept vector dna in transformation, we treated with calcium chloride or chilled on ice etc.. But i have a trouble with one issue about that. Books say that ; We must choose the vector that specific according to the cell that will do transformation. But we will treat with...

Greg Bernhardt submitted a new PF Insights post Using the Spaghetti-Twist to Align DNA Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

This Science magazine news article describes several recent successes and the technical advances that helped them along. One important advance was finding better viruses that could pass the blood brain barrier and infect more specific sets of cells by screening through a bunch of samples from...

What exactly was the probability of the genes manifesting that give rise to human intelligence? The event must be incredibly rare seeing how there were several species of animals yet humans are the only one who can do complex math and language.

I am not sure if this is an epigenetic question or not, I am not too familiar with this field, so I hope it makes sense. Do genes ever “fight” to express themselves? I guess they do initially when time comes for it to be decided which one gets expressed? Is one gene "stronger"? Is there an...

Homework Statement In linkage strength between any two gene loci is 70%,what would be the amount of crossing over between these loci? (a) 15% (b)30% (c) 70% (d) none of these. 2. My approach at understanding the concept I didn't find much about linkage strength from any authentic source. I...

I am writing a genetics guide for my fictional cats. I know that most of it isn't actual cat genetics but it is still genetics. There is 1 particular set of pattern genes that is more commonly expressed in females than in males, the lion pattern. I haven't decided yet whether it should be...

Hi all, It has come to my attention this article on PF (https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/can-gene-editing-eliminate-alzheimers-disease/) about a genetic approach to prevent Alzheimer's disease, based on applying gene-editing techniques on human embryos. In short (so not to be...

*in one patient, for at least 15 months Research published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine reports on a case of using gene therapy to potentially cure a teenage boy of sickle cell anemia, a genetic disease that impairs red blood cell function...

This week on, Feb 14, the US National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine released a report giving recommendations on how...

HOUSTON (AP) -- Former astronaut Gene Cernan, who as the last person to walk on the moon returned to Earth with a message of "peace and hope for all mankind," died on Monday, his family said. He was 82. https://www.yahoo.com/news/gene-cernan-last-astronaut-moon-205711702.html On Dec. 11, 1972...

Hello again! Is there a common word/term for a gene and the protein that it codes for? I know there is signal transduction, but that would be for a whole set of genes and proteins doing a stream of functions. But would there be a name for the specific gene/protein "bundle"?

When the genotype of zygote is heterozygous XY then it results into a male progeny while to obtain a female progeny homozygous XX conditions are needed. Although homozygous YY condition is not possible in nature, but can we say that Y gene seems dominant??

I'm thinking of getting this book as one of my proper introductory reads to evolution but I have one burning question: How does Prof Dawkins' book stand in terms of evidence? Are most of the ideas put forth in the book still standing strong today and most importantly, is it a worthwhile read...

There have been occasionally questions/comments about gene control. This should feed the hunger for knowledge. Here is an open access review article: Three-Dimensional Genome Organization and Function in Drosophila. It discusses some not widely known aspects of control of gene expression in...

I came across this article, thought it was worth mentioning. http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-gene-editing-tested-in-a-person-for-the-first-time-1.20988 A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 technique...

Gene Wilder (1933 – 2016) He was one of my favorite comic actors because of his timing, performances and the number of quite unusual and hilarious characters he played. He gave me many, many good laughs in movies, particularly Start The Revolution Without Me, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes'...

I am studying a particular gene whose expression decreases in certain types of cancer. I'm interested in finding out the mechanisms for this downregulation, specifically, which transcription factors and signalling pathways are involved. I have a hypothesis for the pathway involved, but in case...

I have started writing a book based on the writing prompt: 'Not a single person in the world has died for over a year. Write a story about it.' I decided to call mine 'The Immortal Gene.' The only difference between this universe and 'TIG Universe' is that in 'TIG Universe' everyone who is...

Say a girl has brown eyes .she meets with an accident which causes her to undergo an eye transplantation.The donor has blue eyes and the girl gets them.Now does she possesses a blue or brown eye ? So she genetically has brown eyes but phenotypically has blue eyes ? Is it like that? But phenotype...

If the gene is smaller, is the protein that it codes for smaller too? Vice versa?

Are certain DNA (genetic) strands structurally better build for survival than others? If yes, is there a term for this? For example, is there a specific order of nucleotides that is harder to destroy than another? Or if there is a specific order/combination of nucleotides that would have...

Homework Statement Molecular cloning experiments are carried out to generate multiple copies of a gene of interest. In one such experiment carried out at a student lab, the gene coding for insulin is multiplied in a bacterial cell. In the screening step, the students realized that they have...

Since the time of Darwin, biologists have looked at the history of life as a tree showing how the common ancestor of all life gave rise to all extant species. However, as we have learned more about biology, we've found that organisms do not inherit genetic information from only their direct...

A specie of organisms can inherit traits to its next generation through gene. For example, leaf-cutter ants' ancestors passed their instinct of leaf-cutting to its offspring via gene. In the case of organisms capable of learning, such as crows, certain traits can be passed through generations...

Homework Statement Homework Equations RF = (#Recombinants)/(Total offspring) x 100 The Attempt at a Solution How do I know that b is unlinked? I know that unlinked genes have a recombination frequency of 50% or higher, but how do I calculate RF for the genes here?

We know that some genes produce mRNAs (and then proteins) and some other genes produces just ncRNAs (non-coding RNA) that play regulatory roles (yes, I know that some ncRNAs play other roles, but let’s forget about them now). I want to know a bit more about this regulatory processes. Does every...

Ygggdrasil submitted a new PF Insights post Can Gene Editing Eliminate Alzheimer's Disease? Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.