Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Science and Technology
In news
Recently, the results from the computation analysis of the 1029 sequenced genomes from India were published in the scientific journal, Nucleic Acid Research.
The analysis was carried out by CSIR constituent labs, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
The analysis has found that out of approximately 55.8 million single nucleotide variants in India, around 18.01 million (32.23%) variants are unique and found only in the samples sequenced from India.
Thus, India-centric population genomic initiative becomes important.
Important value additions
Genome
A genome is all the genetic matter in an organism.
It is defined as an organism’s complete set of DNA including all of its genes.
Every organism’s genetic code is contained in its DNA, the building blocks of life.
Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism.
In humans, a copy of the entire genome contains more than 3 billion DNA base pairs.
Genome sequencing
It means figuring out the order of Adenine, Cytosine, Guanines, and Thymine (DNA nucleotides) in a genome
Application: (1) Crucial role for new advancements in medical science; (2) In disease management; (3) Researchers and clinicians can easily detect the disease related to genetic disorder.
The study of entire genome sequences will help understand how genes work together to direct the growth, development and maintenance of an entire organism.
The genes account for less than 25% of the DNA in the Genome. Thus, knowing the entire genome sequence will help scientists study the parts of the genome outside the genes.
