Questions tagged [genetics]
Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics.
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Which patterns do I have to avoid when modifying the 3'-UTR?
I want to change a pre-miRNA sequence (in my case the pre-miRNA is encoding in a 3'UTR of a gene) and then put it in a lentivirus to see if it is still processed.
After modification (permutation of ...
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Why 20 amino acids instead of 64?
This question got me thinking about amino acids and the ambiguity in the genetic code. With 4 nucleotides in RNA and 3 per codon, there are 64 codons. However, these 64 codons only code for 20 amino ...
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What is the smallest number of amino acids required for life?
Is there any hypothesis on the minimum number of amino acids required for life?
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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.
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What are the function(s) of Alu elements in the cell?
My 2008 biology book (1) states that some 10% of the human genome consists of relatively short (~300 nucleotides long) Alu elements which do not code for proteins but many of which are transcribed ...
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What is the functional and structural distinction between core (H2A, H2B, H3,H4) and linker(H1/H5) histones?
Many explanations of histone biochemistry isn't quite elucidating for the undergraduate student. How does histone structure (dimers, octomers) relate to their specific functions as core or linker ...
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Could Junk DNA be used as a Turing Machine by nature?
In what ways has DNA been studied to see if there a "programmable" aspect to it?
Has nature produced anything resembling a Turing machine within the cell, perhaps using the "junk DNA" as its code? I ...
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Why was it so hard to decode the corn genome?
My teachers growing up told me it was impossible to decode the maize genome. But yet its been done.
Why was decoding the genome so significant, and what made it so difficult?
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Smallest viable reproducing population
What is the smallest viable reproducing population, such as in a human population. By viable I mean a population which keeps genetic defects low (enough).
A very strongly related question: what is ...
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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 ...
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How many people's DNA were involved in the compilation of the reference human genome?
I know that the reference human genome is complied from DNA portions from different people, most of whom were European. Do you know how many of them were involved? Do you know which ones were involved?...
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How are the boundaries of a gene determined?
What statistical processes and methods are used by geneticists/molecular biologists to know where one gene starts and one ends?
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Can an adult without genetic lactase persistence still develop a tolerance for dairy foods?
While investigating the rise of adult lactose tolerance, I came across the news that China has been encouraging its citizens to drink more milk, even though most of the Asian population lacks the SNP (...
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How can you identify if a person is homozygous for a certain allele?
I've been thinking about starting a small private research project. In this project I need to find out whether a person is homozygous for a certain allele. The reason for this is that I'm really ...
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What are limiting factors for intron length?
For predicting genes from a sequenced genome, you need to set a maximum intron length. How long can introns get in animals? Is there some limit?
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