Genome of Indian Cobra mapped

Genome of Indian Cobra mapped

Part of: GS Prelims- Government Schemes and GS Mains III-Science & Technology

In News

• Researchers have mapped the genome of cobra which will help in understanding the chemical constituents of the snake venom and contribute to development of new anti-venom therapies.

What is Gene?

• Gene is part of chromosome, a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.
• A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes

Value addition for Prelims

• Genome India Initiative is a project by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology that involves scanning of 20,000 Indian individual’s genomes (in the next five years 2019-24)
• Objective: To develop diagnostic tests and effective therapies for treating diseases (such as cancer)