41

c

c

https://www.genome.gov/10005107, ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements.

In particular, the ENCODE consortium was able to show that at least half of the genome

is transcribed at least some of the time, in addition to protein genes, especially vari­

ous RNAs.

Numerous ENCODE publications (ENCODE 2011) continue to reveal new details of

regulation in the human genome:

c

c

https://www.nature.com/encode/#/threads

For example, in the regulation of histones, RNA, the transcriptome and promoters. In

the meantime, the human genome has been sequenced many times, among other things to

determine individual differences. A current project is even examining 10,000 human

genomes (Telenti et al. 2016).

Conclusion

• Based on sequence comparisons, special algorithms assemble the sequence fragments

of modern sequencing techniques (see tutorials). After bacterial genomes and the yeast

cell genome were completely sequenced and bioinformatically analysed in the 1990s,

human genomes and numerous other eukaryotic (cells with a cell nucleus) genomes

followed from 2001. The function of individual genes is identified by sequence com­

parisons. Protein function analysis (see Chap. 1), but also annotation of regulatory

genome elements (ENCODE consortium) are main tasks of genome analysis.

• Eukaryotic genomes are billions of nucleotides in size, bacterial genomes only a few

million. This means that there is room for long introns in the eukaryotic genome. Half

of the human genome is transcribed, but there is also plenty of room for short (SINE)

and long (LINE) repetitive elements and transposons.

• This combination of genome sequencing and bioinformatics means that the genome

sequence is available for almost all known organisms. Bioinformatics can thus success­

fully predict the essential molecular components of these organisms: we live in the age

of post-genomics (whenever the genome sequence is known). ◄

3.4

Exercises for Chap. 3

It is a good idea to briefly review the exercises for Chap. 2. You should also briefly look at

the exercises for Chap. 3 later for repetition at Chaps. 5 and 7.

Task 3.1

Describe how the human genome is constructed.

3.4  Exercises for Chap. 3