Module 7: Microbial Genomis and Taxonomy

Question 1

what is sanger DNA sequencing

Answer 1

• DNA to be sequenced is isolated
• separated into single strands (denatured)
• a specific primer oligonucleotide is added that base-pairs to the template and serves as start position for that batch of sequence reactions
• 4 parallel reactions are done, each with all four normal nucleotides plus one labelled dideoxycytidine’s nucleotide
• the DNA synthesis reactions are allowed to proceed. the provided concentrations of the labelled dideoxy nucleotide in each of the reactions is such that there is a small chance of being incorporated instead of the regular deoxy nucleotide
• separating this population of fragments on a polyacrylamide gel reveals the size and by entension position of each occurence of that base

Question 2

what is next generation sequencing

Answer 2

redudent library of smaller peices of the genomes and simultaneously obtain the sequence of all of them at the same time, in the same sequence run

Question 3

what is genome sequencing

Answer 3

• determining the process of getermining the entirety or nearly the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organisms genome at a single time

Question 4

metagenomics

Answer 4

study of microbial genomes extracted directly from the environment

Question 5

what is bioinformatics

Answer 5

• complex field that strives to make sense of the vast abudence of genomic DNA sequence
• the processing of sequence information to identify genes, assign probable function of genes, identify novel genes and do comparisons between species/strains

Question 6

what is annotation

Answer 6

• identifying functional elements along the sequence of a genome

Question 7

what is orthologues

Answer 7

genes from different oranisms are found to encode similar ORFs

Question 8

what are paralogues

Answer 8

• gene paris found to be similar in this way

Question 9

what is transcriptome analysis

Answer 9

• levels of transcription for all genes in the genome at once
• metatranscriptomics = transcriptome analysis of population of cells from a natural environment

Question 10

what is comparative genetics

Answer 10

• direct comparison between organisms at the genome level

Question 11

what is taxonomy

Answer 11

• the science of classifying living things
• classifaction, nomenclature and identification