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How We Know Sequences of Bases in DNA?
This video shows how DNA sequences were worked out at the time of the Human Genome Project (1990-2003, roughly, but there are still a small number of small gaps that have resisted sequencing).
On the tenth anniversary of "completion" of the project, the news service LiveScience reported, "Sequencing the first human genome cost about $1 billion and took 13 years to complete; today it costs about $3,000 to $5000 and takes just one to two days." By 2019, with newer methods and extensive automation, it cost less than $1000 to sequence a person's genome, and commercial ventures are shooting for $100.
It is now possible to sequence the DNA extracted from single cells. This allows scientists to study variation in cells once thought to be identical, such as the cancer cells in a single tumor. Mutation and the resulting variation in the genes of tumors produce diverse populations of cells, and any cells able to resist treatment agents will continue to proliferate in spite of treatment. Knowledge of the "family trees" of individual populations is giving new insights into how cancer cells evade treatments.
Here is more:
Here's a look at facilities and processes in a "DNA pipeline", which provides the service of sequencing DNA for many customers.
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How We Know Evolutionary Relationships
We learn how we are related to other organisms by comparing our genes with theirs.
The sequence of DNA bases can be determined, and so the sequences of similar genes from different organisms can be compared. If we compare, say, the insulin genes of pairs of organisms -- say, humans and chimps versus humans and hedgehogs, the amount of similarity tells us how closely the two organisms in each pair are related. (Just off the bat, we expect that the human insulin gene is more similar to the chimp insulin gene than it is to the hedgehog insulin gene, just because we look more like the chimp but we are nowhere near as cute as the hedgehog.) But comparing genes will make this comparison much more rigorous and precise, allowing us to say whether we are more closely related to chimps or to very similar-looking bonobos, or whether we are more closely related to hedgehogs, or their close relatives, porcupines.
Here are the details of such comparisons, including a brief tutorial on how to determine such relationships yourself, using online tools. The gene used in these comparisons is the actin gene. Actin is a muscle protein found in many animals, so it allows establishment of many evolutionary relationships.
Mr. Anderson is your guide:
The two websites that Mr. Anderson uses in building his family tree for actins are as follows:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
which is the home of the National Center for Biotechnology Information,or NCBI
and
https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi, a subsite at NCBI, called the BLAST portion, which finds sequences similar to the sequence you want to study. BLAST stands for basic local alignment search tool.
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Gene Music
Here's what it sounds like to assign a different note (comprising pitch and color) to each of the 20 different protein building blocks encoded by a gene. The protein is called a FAST kinase domain.*
* FAST kinase domain-containing protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FASTKD1 gene on chromosome 2. This protein is part of the FASTKD family, which is known for regulating the energy balance of mitochondria under stress. FASTKD1 is also an RNA-binding protein and has been associated with endometrial cancer. More at Wikipedia.
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Protein Music
Here is a much more complex form of music based on some complex properties of a protein model and its motion as it folds from a formless chain of building blocks into its native or functional conformation.
How We Know Evolutionary Relationships
We learn how we are related to other organisms by comparing our genes with theirs.
The sequence of DNA bases can be determined, and so the sequences of similar genes from different organisms can be compared. If we compare, say, the insulin genes of pairs of organisms -- say, humans and chimps versus humans and hedgehogs, the amount of similarity tells us how closely the two organisms in each pair are related. (Just off the bat, we expect that the human insulin gene is more similar to the chimp insulin gene than it is to the hedgehog insulin gene, just because we look more like the chimp but we are nowhere near as cute as the hedgehog.) But comparing genes will make this comparison much more rigorous and precise, allowing us to say whether we are more closely related to chimps or to very similar-looking bonobos, or whether we are more closely related to hedgehogs, or their close relatives, porcupines.
Here are the details of such comparisons, including a brief tutorial on how to determine such relationships yourself, using online tools. The gene used in these comparisons is the actin gene. Actin is a muscle protein found in many animals, so it allows establishment of many evolutionary relationships.
Mr. Anderson is your guide:
The two websites that Mr. Anderson uses in building his family tree for actins are as follows:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
which is the home of the National Center for Biotechnology Information,or NCBI
and
https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi, a subsite at NCBI, called the BLAST portion, which finds sequences similar to the sequence you want to study. BLAST stands for basic local alignment search tool.
••••••
Gene Music
Here's what it sounds like to assign a different note (comprising pitch and color) to each of the 20 different protein building blocks encoded by a gene. The protein is called a FAST kinase domain.*
* FAST kinase domain-containing protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FASTKD1 gene on chromosome 2. This protein is part of the FASTKD family, which is known for regulating the energy balance of mitochondria under stress. FASTKD1 is also an RNA-binding protein and has been associated with endometrial cancer. More at Wikipedia.
••••••
Protein Music
Here is a much more complex form of music based on some complex properties of a protein model and its motion as it folds from a formless chain of building blocks into its native or functional conformation.
