Mobile genetic elements: the agents of open source evolution

Horizontal genomics is a new field in prokaryotic biology that is focused on the analysis of DNA sequences in prokaryotic chromosomes that seem to have originated from other prokaryotes or eukaryotes. However, it is equally important to understand the agents that effect DNA movement: plasmids, bacteriophages and transposons. Although these agents occur in all prokaryotes, comprehensive genomics of the prokaryotic mobile gene pool or 'mobilome' lags behind other genomics initiatives owing to challenges that are distinct from cellular chromosomal analysis. Recent work shows promise of improved mobile genetic element (MGE) genomics and consequent opportunities to take advantage - and avoid the dangers - of these 'natural genetic engineers'. This review describes MGEs, their properties that are important in horizontal gene transfer, and current opportunities to advance MGE genomics.     

植物功能基因组学的研究策略

植物基因组学是一门研究植物基因组内基因与遗传信息是如何有机结合并如何决定其功能的一门科学。随着植物基因组计划的顺利进行 ,植物基因组学的研究已从结构基因组学转向功能基因组学。近年来 ,多采用高通量 (highthroughput,HTP)序列分析技术、大规模实验技术及计算机统计分析技术研究植物基因组功能。概述了植物功能基因组学的最新进展。     

About the use of protein models

Protein models can be of great assistance in functional genomics, as they provide the structural insights often necessary to understand protein function. Although comparative modelling is far from yielding perfect structures, this is still the most reliable method and the quality of the predictions is now well understood. Models can be classified according to their correctness and accuracy, which will impact their applicability and usefulness in functional genomics and a variety of situations.     

高通量测序技术及其在微生物学研究中的应用

20世纪70年代发明的核酸测序技术为基因组学及其相关学科的发展做出了巨大贡献,本世纪初发展的以Illumina公司的HiSeq 2000,ABI公司的SOLID,和Roche公司的454技术为代表的高通量测序技术又为基因组学的发展注入了新活力.本文在阐述这些技术的基础上,着重讨论了新一代测序技术在微生物领域中的应用.     

Road-maps and revelations: on the somatic ethics of genetic susceptibility

Understanding genomic susceptibility risk has been represented as key to a new era of personalized medicine, in which “empowered” individuals shape their lives according to a “somatic ethics” of genetic risk management. Based on a comprehensive analysis of websites and other documents produced by key companies within the personal genomics industry, I argue that the rhetoric of empowerment these companies employ constructs an “ideal subject” of personal genomics while also expressing tensions implicit within the idea of a somatic ethics based on genetic susceptibility. Using Kaushik Sunder Rajan's concept of “genomic fetishism,” I show how these tensions arise from the relationship the rhetoric of personal genomics constructs between risk and uncertainty, and relate them to broader tensions within “risk thinking” as a mode of governmentality that extends beyond genomics.     

Anticipation of Personal Genomics Data Enhances Interest and Learning Environment in Genomics and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Courses

An important discussion at colleges is centered on determining more effective models for teaching undergraduates. As personalized genomics has become more common, we hypothesized it could be a valuable tool to make science education more hands on, personal, and engaging for college undergraduates. We hypothesized that providing students with personal genome testing kits would enhance the learning experience of students in two undergraduate courses at Brigham Young University: Advanced Molecular Biology and Genomics. These courses have an emphasis on personal genomics the last two weeks of the semester. Students taking these courses were given the option to receive personal genomics kits in 2014, whereas in 2015 they were not. Students sent their personal genomics samples in on their own and received the data after the course ended. We surveyed students in these courses before and after the two-week emphasis on personal genomics to collect data on whether anticipation of obtaining their own personal genomic data impacted undergraduate student learning. We also tested to see if specific personal genomic assignments improved the learning experience by analyzing the data from the undergraduate students who completed both the pre- and post-course surveys. Anticipation of personal genomic data significantly enhanced student interest and the learning environment based on the time students spent researching personal genomic material and their self-reported attitudes compared to those who did not anticipate getting their own data. Personal genomics homework assignments significantly enhanced the undergraduate student interest and learning based on the same criteria and a personal genomics quiz. We found that for the undergraduate students in both molecular biology and genomics courses, incorporation of personal genomic testing can be an effective educational tool in undergraduate science education.     

ASAP: the Alternative Splicing Annotation Project

Recently, genomics analyses have demonstrated that alternative splicing is widespread in mammalian genomes (30-60% of genes reported to have multiple isoforms), and may be one of their most important mechanisms of functional regulation. However, by comparison with other genomics data such as genome annotation, SNPs, or gene expression, there exists relatively little database infrastructure for the study of alternative splicing. We have constructed an online database ASAP (the Alternative Splicing Annotation Project) for biologists to access and mine the enormous wealth of alternative splicing information coming from genomics and proteomics. ASAP is based on genome-wide analyses of alternative splicing in human (30 793 alternative splice relationships found) from detailed alignment of expressed sequences onto the genomic sequence. ASAP provides precise gene exon-intron structure, alternative splicing, tissue specificity of alternative splice forms, and protein isoform sequences resulting from alternative splicing. Moreover, it can help biologists design probe sequences for distinguishing specific mRNA isoforms. ASAP is intended to be a community resource for collaborative annotation of alternative splice forms, their regulation, and biological functions. The URL for ASAP is http://www.bioinformatics.ucla.edu/ASAP.     

Ecological annotation of genes and genomes through ecological genomics

Ecological genomics is a research field that aims to determine how a genome or a population of genomes interacts with its environment across ecological and evolutionary timescales. This matter was the central theme of the symposium on Ecological Genomics that took place at the First meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, held at the University of Toronto in May 2007. Through their research on a diverse array of organisms, the various speakers illustrated how ecology and evolution benefit from genomics, and indirectly how genomics can benefit from evolutionary ecology.     

For an ethics of promising, or: a few kind words about James Watson

This essay questions some of the limits that both science studies and bioethics have assumed in their engagements with technoscience, and genomics in particular. It argues that these disciplines have privileged an "ethics of suspicion" regarding technoscience, and argues that this is ill-suited to promissory sciences such as genomics. The essay begins to develop elements of an "ethics of friendship" toward genomics, using examples from toxicogenomics and behavioral genetics, to suggest what an ethics of promising might involve.     

基于mRNA水平的差异表达基因筛选技术

随着分子生物学技术的深入发展,基因组研究重点已经由基因组测序转向基因功能鉴定,即由结构基因组学向功能基因组学转变。研究获得不同处理下基因的差异表达谱是功能基因组学的重要一环,目前已经有多种检测基因差异表达的技术可供选用。在减法杂交技术和PCR基础上发展起来的DDRT—PCR、cDNA—RDA、cDNA—AFLP和SSH技术因其实用性而得到广泛的应用,并取得了令人满意的结果。