Of Terms in Biology: Synteny

by Elio
 

Source

Geneticists are known for having developed a language of their own. So is just about everybody else in science. Ergo, looking up definitions is often a necessity. Today’s term is synteny (which etymologically means "on the same ribbon".) You might think that we don't need to worry about this so much in bacteria and archaea, the majority of whom have a single chromosome. All their genes are syntenic by definition. Synteny applies to mul­tichromosomal organisms – of which there is a sizeable number within the bacteria, for example, Rhodobacter spheroides (where this was first observed), Burkholderia cepacia, and some vibrios, brucellas, leptospiras, and rhizobia. Anyhow, we went ahead and looked up synteny. We were hoping for some enlightenment to share with you. Were we successful? Here are the results.

• The occurrence of two or more loci on the same chromosome, without regard to the distance between them. Source

• Portions of chromosomes in which gene order is conserved. Source

• The term synteny was originally defined to mean that two gene loci share the same chromosome. In a genomic context we refer to syntenic regions if both sequence and gene order is conserved between two [closely related] species. Source (Link now broken)
• Two genes which occur on the same chromosome are syntenic; however, syntenic genes may or may not be "linked." Source: NHBLI/NCBI Glossary

• In classical genetics, synteny describes the physical co-localization of genetic loci on the same chromosome within an individual or species. Source

Lots of luck.

 
 

 
 

Comments

[Stanley Maloy]

I think this is an example where two different fields, genetics and genomics, use the same term to mean quite different things. These fields share an interest in genes and, although not universally appreciated, each provides unique insights and each has different limitations -- genetics and genomics are clearly distinct disciplines from both epistemological and practical perspectives. The definition that refers to genes on the same chromosome is used by geneticists and was based upon the need to describe the classical problem of segregation in diploids. I believe that the alternative definition that refers to conservation of gene order on different chromosomes derived from the need to describe such similarities following the birth of comparative genomics.