2012 September 12

Assignments for Mon 17 September

1. Finish work on Chapter 2
2. Start your YFG page and add significant content
3. Download and install Geneious, and look at tutorial information
4. Use Genious to download YFG sequence and annotations

Class Notes

Remember to download free trial of Geneious software. This program will be especially helpful for the YFG project.

Wiki Site Contributions

• Homolog: gene related to another gene by common ancestor that fulfills a similar function between species in within the same species. There are two sub-types of homologs: Paralog - genes that have duplicated in genome. Primary way that new genetic functions arise due to the duplicate gene being able to mutate and diverge from its original function. For example, Hemoglobin and Myoglobin are paralogs. Ortholog - gene that is related to another gene between species that can be linked to a shared ancestor.
• Link to theGenetics Home Reference. This may be helpful if YFG belongs to a human!
• GFP: Green Fluorescent Protein.
• ENCODE: info added to the controversy section.
• Synonymous mutations change function?: Can change function of protein by changing rate of protein translation which can affect how a protein folds. This led us to the subject of prions, "the zombie protein".
• prions: misfolded and infectious proteins with an ability to convert other proteins with the same amino-acid sequence to their pathogenic form. Prions are typically transmitted by eating under cooked brain & spinal tissues. They can be passed from cow to human by eating under cooked meat contaminated with brain, spinal or digestive tract tissue. Depending on severity of infection, prions can live in almost all tissue. Prions are responsible for diseases such as:

::: -BSE (bovine-spongiform encephalophaty), ie. Mad Cow.

-Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

-Kuru: a neuro-degenerative disease transmitted via cannibalism. The term "kuru" means "to shake". It is also known as laughing sickness, since one of the symptoms are pathological bursts of laughter.

• Gene duplication: can occur via transposons or CNV (Copy number variation). CNVs are alterations of DNA that result in abnormal copies of some sequences of the DNA. They cause very common differences between humans.
• Dosage Compensation
• Huntingtons Disease: Woody Guthrie, folk singer died of complications from Huntington's Disease at age 55.

Continue to develop YFG project and be prepared to give a more extensive presentation of YFG in Mondays class. Use textbook or wikipedia to gather ideas!