« Talmudic Question #58 | Main | Of Archaeal Periplasm & Iconoclasm »

Comments

Aaron Heiss

Nathan Myers -- in response to your question, yes, it is common to sequence the complement of mRNA at particular stages. Unfortunately, the terminology for it is not clear. Yana mentioned EST projects, and that is exactly what you suggest! "EST" stands for "Expressed Sequence Tag", which is another term for mRNA. These projects are common in the protistological community, since they are a fraction of the size of full genome sequencing, and yet consist only of genes (while genomes contain a huge amount of noncoding DNA). As such, they represent a great value for (grant) money. Of course, EST data misses out on a number of important bits of information (gene order and chromosomal arrangement being one obvious example, and regulatory sequences another), but it is still better than nothing, and it has the advantage of showing what genes are expressed at any particular time (assuming that you have a synchronously-growing culture!).

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)