Required Background Information

Objective

The objectives of this lecture series are to familiarize high school students with the CoGe program and to teach them fundamental ideas about comparative genomics.

Basic genetic ideas required

DNA

• What is DNA, what does it do, and how does it do it?
  

Genes

• What are genes and what do they do?
• How do genes work?

Introns and Exons

• What are introns?
• What are exons?
• What is the difference between them?
• How do they related to genes?

RNA

• What is RNA and what does it do?
• How does RNA relate to genes?
  
• What are different kinds of RNA and what are their roles in protein synthesis?

     -  mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA

Proteins

• What are proteins and what do they do?

Transcription and Translation

• What is transcription?
• What is translation?
• How are they similar and how are they different?

Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

• What is the central dogma of molecular biology? How does it related to DNA, RNA, protein, transcription and translation?

Mutations

• What are the different types of mutations?

Evolution

• What is evolution?

Homology

• What is homology?
• What does it mean if two genes are homologous?

CoGe

Overview

• What can CoGe do and why do we need it?

Understanding the basics of the CoGe's interface

OrganismView (quicklink)

     -  lets you search for genomes

CoGeBlast (quicklink)

     -  a program that compares entire genomes and identifies similar segments of DNA

GenomeView

     -  a tool that visualizes genomes, enabling the user to get close up views and compare multiple genomes

See Also

Next Lecture:  Visually Comparing Genomes

All Lectures:  Tutorial for High School Students