15. Genomes and Genomics

Which of the following terms describes the study of physical interactions between DNA, RNA, and Protein?

Which of the following methods is used to study protein interactions in live cells?

Which of the following methods is used to study protein-DNA interactions?

From microarray analysis, how do we know what genes are being expressed in a specific tissue?

In the discussion we focused on the analysis of genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes and considered important applications and findings from these endeavors. At the same time, we found many opportunities to consider the methods and reasoning by which much of this information was acquired. From the explanations given in the chapter, what answers would you propose to the following fundamental questions?

How have microarrays demonstrated that, although all cells of an organism have the same genome, some genes are expressed in almost all cells, whereas other genes show cell- and tissue-specific expression?

Discuss the similarities and differences between forward and reverse genetic approaches, and when you would choose to utilize each of the approaches.

What is functional genomics? How does it differ from comparative genomics?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using insertion alleles versus alleles generated by chemicals (as in TILLING) in reverse genetic studies?

Sequencing the human genome, the development of microarray technology, and personal genomics promise to improve our understanding of normal and abnormal cell behavior. How are these approaches dramatically changing our understanding and treatment of complex diseases such as cancer?

Discuss the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of the different approaches to reverse genetics.

What functional information about a genome can be determined through applications of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)?