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N-mer
In bioinformatics, ''k''-mers are substrings of length k contained within a biological sequence. Primarily used within the context of computational genomics and sequence analysis, in which ''k''-mers are composed of nucleotides (''i.e''. A, T, G, and C), ''k''-mers are capitalized upon to assemble DNA sequences, improve heterologous gene expression, identify species in metagenomic samples, and create attenuated vaccines. Usually, the term ''k''-mer refers to all of a sequence's subsequences of length k, such that the sequence AGAT would have four monomers (A, G, A, and T), three 2-mers (AG, GA, AT), two 3-mers (AGA and GAT) and one 4-mer (AGAT). More generally, a sequence of length L will have L - k + 1 ''k''-mers and there exist n^ total possible ''k''-mers, where n is number of possible monomers (e.g. four in the case of DNA). Introduction ''k''-mers are simply length k subsequences. For example, all the possible ''k''-mers of a DNA sequence are shown below: A method of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
K-mer Diagram
In bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ..., ''k''-mers are substrings of length k contained within a biological sequence. Primarily used within the context of computational genomics and sequence analysis, in which ''k''-mers are composed of nucleotides (''i.e''. A, T, G, and C), ''k''-mers are capitalized upon to Sequence assembly, assemble DNA sequences, improve Protein production, heterologous gene expression, Binning (metagenomics), identify species in metagenomic samples, and create attenuated vaccines. Usually, the term ''k''-mer refers to all of a sequence's subsequences of length k, such that the sequence AGAT would have four monomers (A, G, A, and T), three 2-mers (AG, GA, AT), two 3-mers (AGA and GAT) and one 4-mer (AGAT). More generally, a sequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GC-content
In molecular biology and genetics, GC-content (or guanine-cytosine content) is the percentage of nitrogenous bases in a DNA or RNA molecule that are either guanine (G) or cytosine (C). This measure indicates the proportion of G and C bases out of an implied four total bases, also including adenine and thymine in DNA and adenine and uracil in RNA. GC-content may be given for a certain fragment of DNA or RNA or for an entire genome. When it refers to a fragment, it may denote the GC-content of an individual gene or section of a gene (domain), a group of genes or gene clusters, a non-coding region, or a synthetic oligonucleotide such as a primer. Structure Qualitatively, guanine (G) and cytosine (C) undergo a specific hydrogen bonding with each other, whereas adenine (A) bonds specifically with thymine (T) in DNA and with uracil (U) in RNA. Quantitatively, each GC base pair is held together by three hydrogen bonds, while AT and AU base pairs are held together by two hydrogen bonds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amino Acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 appear in the genetic code of life. Amino acids can be classified according to the locations of the core structural functional groups ( alpha- , beta- , gamma- amino acids, etc.); other categories relate to polarity, ionization, and side-chain group type ( aliphatic, acyclic, aromatic, polar, etc.). In the form of proteins, amino-acid '' residues'' form the second-largest component (water being the largest) of human muscles and other tissues. Beyond their role as residues in proteins, amino acids participate in a number of processes such as neurotransmitter transport and biosynthesis. It is thought that they played a key role in enabling life on Earth and its emergence. Amino acids are formally named by the IUPAC- IUBMB Joint Commi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methylation
Methylation, in the chemistry, chemical sciences, is the addition of a methyl group on a substrate (chemistry), substrate, or the substitution of an atom (or group) by a methyl group. Methylation is a form of alkylation, with a methyl group replacing a hydrogen#Compounds, hydrogen atom. These terms are commonly used in chemistry, biochemistry, soil science, and biology. In biological systems, methylation is Catalysis, catalyzed by enzymes; such methylation can be involved in modification of heavy metals, regulation of gene expression, regulation of Protein#Functions, protein function, and RNA processing. ''In vitro'' methylation of tissue samples is also a way to reduce some histology#Histological Artifacts, histological staining artifacts. The reverse of methylation is demethylation. In biology In biological systems, methylation is accomplished by enzymes. Methylation can modify heavy metals and can regulate gene expression, RNA processing, and protein function. It is a key pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deamination
Deamination is the removal of an amino group from a molecule. Enzymes that catalysis, catalyse this reaction are called deaminases. In the human body, deamination takes place primarily in the liver; however, it can also occur in the kidney. In situations of excess protein intake, deamination is used to break down amino acids for energy. The amino group is removed from the amino acid and converted to ammonia. The rest of the amino acid is made up of mostly carbon and hydrogen, and is recycled or oxidized for energy. Ammonia is toxic to the human system, and enzymes convert it to urea or uric acid by addition of carbon dioxide molecules (which is not considered a deamination process) in the urea cycle, which also takes place in the liver. Urea and uric acid can safely diffuse into the blood and then be excreted in urine. Deamination reactions in DNA Cytosine Spontaneous deamination is the hydrolysis reaction of cytosine into uracil, releasing ammonia in the process. This can occu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CpG Site
The CpG sites or CG sites are regions of DNA where a cytosine nucleotide is followed by a guanine nucleotide in the linear sequence of bases along its 5' → 3' direction. CpG sites occur with high frequency in genomic regions called CpG islands. Cytosines in CpG dinucleotides can be methylated to form 5-methylcytosines. Enzymes that add a methyl group are called DNA methyltransferases. In mammals, 70% to 80% of CpG cytosines are methylated. Methylating the cytosine within a gene can change its expression, a mechanism that is part of a larger field of science studying gene regulation that is called epigenetics. Methylated cytosines often mutate to thymines. In humans, about 70% of promoters located near the transcription start site of a gene (proximal promoters) contain a CpG island. CpG characteristics Definition ''CpG'' is shorthand for ''5'—C—phosphate—G—3' '', that is, cytosine and guanine separated by only one phosphate group; phosphate links any two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CG Suppression
CG suppression is a term for the phenomenon that CG dinucleotides are very uncommon in most portions of vertebrate genomes. In adult somatic tissues, cytosine residues may be methylated, and this occurs almost exclusively within a symmetric CpG context. Methylated C residues spontaneously deaminate to form T residues; hence CpG dinucleotides steadily mutate to TpG dinucleotides, which gives rise to the under-representation of CpG dinucleotides in the human genome (they occur at only 21% of the expected frequency). (On the other hand, spontaneous deamination of unmethylated C residues gives rise to U residues, a mutation that is quickly recognized and repaired by the cell). In human and mouse, CGs are the least frequent dinucleotide, making up less than 1% of all dinucleotides. GCs are the second most infrequent, making up more than 4% of all dinucleotides, so CGs are more than fourfold less frequent than all other dinucleotides. See also *CpG island The CpG sites or C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-coding DNA
Non-coding DNA (ncDNA) sequences are components of an organism's DNA that do not encode protein sequences. Some non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g. transfer RNA, microRNA, piRNA, ribosomal RNA, and regulatory RNAs). Other functional regions of the non-coding DNA fraction include regulatory sequences that control gene expression; scaffold attachment regions; origins of DNA replication; centromeres; and telomeres. Some non-coding regions appear to be mostly nonfunctional, such as introns, pseudogenes, intergenic DNA, and fragments of transposons and viruses. Regions that are completely nonfunctional are called junk DNA. Fraction of non-coding genomic DNA In bacteria, the coding regions typically take up 88% of the genome. The remaining 12% does not encode proteins, but much of it still has biological function through genes where the RNA transcript is functional (non-coding genes) and regulatory sequences, which means that almos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coding Region
The coding region of a gene, also known as the coding DNA sequence (CDS), is the portion of a gene's DNA or RNA that codes for a protein. Studying the length, composition, regulation, splicing, structures, and functions of coding regions compared to non-coding regions over different species and time periods can provide a significant amount of important information regarding gene organization and evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This can further assist in mapping the human genome and developing gene therapy. Definition Although this term is also sometimes used interchangeably with exon, it is not the exact same thing: the exon can be composed of the coding region as well as the 3' and 5' untranslated regions of the RNA, and so therefore, an exon would be partially made up of coding region. The 3' and 5' untranslated regions of the RNA, which do not code for protein, are termed non-coding regions and are not discussed on this page. There is often confusion between coding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Translation (biology)
In biology, translation is the process in living Cell (biology), cells in which proteins are produced using RNA molecules as templates. The generated protein is a sequence of amino acids. This sequence is determined by the sequence of nucleotides in the RNA. The nucleotides are considered three at a time. Each such triple results in the addition of one specific amino acid to the protein being generated. The matching from nucleotide triple to amino acid is called the genetic code. The translation is performed by a large complex of functional RNA and proteins called ribosomes. The entire process is called gene expression. In translation, messenger RNA (mRNA) is decoded in a ribosome, outside the nucleus, to produce a specific amino acid chain, or polypeptide. The polypeptide later protein folding, folds into an Activation energy, active protein and performs its functions in the cell. The polypeptide can also start folding during protein synthesis. The ribosome facilitates decoding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eukaryotes
The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes. They constitute a major group of life forms alongside the two groups of prokaryotes: the Bacteria and the Archaea. Eukaryotes represent a small minority of the number of organisms, but given their generally much larger size, their collective global biomass is much larger than that of prokaryotes. The eukaryotes emerged within the archaeal kingdom Promethearchaeati and its sole phylum Promethearchaeota. This implies that there are only two domains of life, Bacteria and Archaea, with eukaryotes incorporated among the Archaea. Eukaryotes first emerged during the Paleoproterozoic, likely as flagellated cells. The leading evolutionary theory is they were created by symbiogenesis between an anaerobic Promethearchaeati archaean and an aerobic proteobacterium, which form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Recombination
Genetic recombination (also known as genetic reshuffling) is the exchange of genetic material between different organisms which leads to production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent. In eukaryotes, genetic recombination during meiosis can lead to a novel set of genetic information that can be further passed on from parents to offspring. Most recombination occurs naturally and can be classified into two types: (1) ''interchromosomal'' recombination, occurring through independent assortment of alleles whose loci are on different but homologous chromosomes (random orientation of pairs of homologous chromosomes in meiosis I); & (2) ''intrachromosomal'' recombination, occurring through crossing over. During meiosis in eukaryotes, genetic recombination involves the pairing of homologous chromosomes. This may be followed by information transfer between the chromosomes. The information transfer may occur without physical exchange (a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
