Ever since a monk called Mendel started breeding pea plants we've been learning about our genomes. In 1953, Watson, Crick and Franklin described the structure of the molecule that makes up our genomes: the DNA double helix. Then, in 2001, scientists wrote down the entire 3-billion letter code contained in the average human genome. Now they're trying to interpret that code; to work out how it's used to make different types of cells and different people. The ENCODE project, as it's called, is the latest chapter in the story of you. To read the ENCODE research papers and more, visit http://www.nature.com/ENCODE

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/james-watson-on-how-he-discovered-dna Nobel laureate James Watson opens TED2005 with the frank and funny story of how he and his research partner, Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA. Talk by James Watson.

The vital metaphase stage of cell division, when the sister chromatids migrated to the centre and lined up in a row, and pulled apart using attached microtubules in such a way that half the DNA ends up in each daughter cell. However, before the mitotic spindle‐mediated movement gets start and pulled DNA apart, the chromosomes are free to undergo recombination which involves the exchange of genetic material either between multiple chromosomes or between different regions of the same chromosome.

During recombination, the precise breakage of each strand, exchange between the strands, and sealing of the resulting recombined molecules happens. The “chromosomal breakpoints” refers to these places where they break. Mostly, this process occurs with a high degree of accuracy at high frequency in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. But occasionally this “break and sealing/ break and reattach” process goes wrong and the reattachment happens in the wrong place which usually create disaster (with few exceptions).These chromosome disaster or abnormalities involve the gain, loss or rearrangement of visible amounts of genetic material during cell division. These abnormalities are of two type, the first one is numerical abnormalities  where severe disorders are caused by the loss or gain of whole chromosomes, which affect the copy number of hundreds or even thousands of genes. The second are structural abnormalities which can be unbalanced or balanced. The former are similar to numerical abnormalities in that genetic material is either gained or lost. The natural defects in chromosome segregation are linked to cancer and several genetic diseases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genetic_disorders). Therefore, the enzymes involved in regulating cell division are still the attractive drug targets for many diseases.

Apart from certain chromosome abnormalities, these “crossing over” of segments of maternal and paternal chromosomes to form hybrid chromosomes have some evolutionary importance and considered as a driver of genetic variation. Moreover, the chromosome breakage in evolution is considered to be non-random in nature(http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.0020014). In addition the study of breakpoint regions and non-breakpoint (stable) regions of chromosomes indicates both the regions evolved in distinctly different ways ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2675965/). These breakage may lead to genetic diseases or participate to chromosomal rearranmgnets and contributed in development of new species.

I will try to explain the genome hotspots/Evolutionary Breakpoint Regions(EBRs)/fragile regions/weak fragments/  in my next blog.

Software for recombination detection:

RAT http://cbr.jic.ac.uk/dicks/software/RAT/

Breakpointer https://github.com/ruping/Breakpointer

DRP http://web.cbio.uct.ac.za/~darren/rdp.html

RB-finder http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18707535

LDhat2.0 http://ldhat.sourceforge.net/LDhat2.0/instructions.shtml

Reference:

http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-recombination-514#

Image: Wikipedia , sciencelearn.org.nz

Recommended Articles:

http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2012/05/22/13-chromosomal-disorders-youve-never-heard-of/

http://web.udl.es/usuaris/e4650869/docencia/segoncicle/genclin98/recursos_classe_%28pdf%29/revisionsPDF/chromosyndromes.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775595/table/T2/

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/disorders/chromosomal/

http://www.ncert.nic.in/html/learning_basket/biology/cc&cd.pdf

EAGER encompasses both state-of-the-art tools for each step as well as new complementary tools tailored for ancient DNA data within a single integrated solution in an easily accessible format.

https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-0918-z

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/apeltzer/EAGER-GUI

More at file:///home/urbe/Downloads/diamond_manual.pdf

http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v12/n1/full/nmeth.3176.html

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/bbuchfink/diamond

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/ewijaya/slidesort-bpr

DNA:

Nucleotide Code: Base:

---------------- -----

A.................Adenine

C.................Cytosine

G.................Guanine

T (or U)..........Thymine (or Uracil)

R.................A or G

Y.................C or T

S.................G or C

W.................A or T

K.................G or T

M.................A or C

B.................C or G or T

D.................A or G or T

H.................A or C or T

V.................A or C or G

N.................any base . or -............gap

Protein:

Amino Acid Code: Three letter Code: Amino Acid:

---------------- ------------------ -----------

A.................Ala.................Alanine

B.................Asx.................Aspartic acid or Asparagine

C.................Cys.................Cysteine

D.................Asp.................Aspartic Acid

E.................Glu.................Glutamic Acid

F.................Phe.................Phenylalanine

G.................Gly.................Glycine

H.................His.................Histidine

I.................Ile.................Isoleucine

K.................Lys.................Lysine

L.................Leu.................Leucine

M.................Met.................Methionine

N.................Asn.................Asparagine

P.................Pro.................Proline

Q.................Gln.................Glutamine

R.................Arg.................Arginine

S.................Ser.................Serine

T.................Thr.................Threonine

V.................Val.................Valine

W.................Trp.................Tryptophan

X.................Xaa.................Any amino acid

Y.................Tyr.................Tyrosine

Z.................Glx.................Glutamine or Glutamic acid

It installs in any computer even if you don't have administrator rights!

Address of the bookmark: http://www.dnabaser.com/download/DNA-Counter/index.html

In this project, you will use single-molecule techniques to label mRNA and DNA in (live and fixed) Drosophila embryos and fixed embryonic bodies. You will also use super-resolution microscopy to visualize protein condensates. Co-localization dynamics reflecting DNA-protein bindings and DNA looping events will be detected, analyzed, and used to test computational models of gene transcription.

Qualification:
MSc degree (or equivalent) in Biology, Biophysics, or Bioengineering

Experience in one or more of these areas: (1) molecular cloning, (2) imaging, (3) image analysis (using Matlab/Python/Java), (4) microfluidics, and (5) computational modeling.

How to Apply?
Send (1) your CV, (2) summary of research experience, and (3) email addresses of at least 2 references to ezzat.el-sherif@fau.de. Title your email ‘Transcription PhD Position’.

salary Grade.: E13
Total Time: 3 Jahre
Start: 01.01.2020.
End: 31.3.2020.

Address:
Dr. El-Sherif, Ezzat
Department Biologie
Professur für Zoologie (Entwicklungsbiologie) (Prof. Dr. Klingler)
Telefon 09131/85-28068, Fax 09131/85-28040, E-Mail: ezzat.el-sherif@fau.de