Post 41. Genomics
Source: Canva
What is the genome?
The genome is the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism. Deoxyribonucleic acid, or more simply DNA, is the large molecule that carries this genetic material needed for the development and functioning of a cell or an organism.
What is genomics?
Genomics is the the study of the whole genetic material of a cell or organism. Genomics is area of science (molecular biology) concerned with the structure, function (how it affects growth, development and processes in the body), evolution, and mapping of genomes.Nutritional genomics is “the study of how diet may affect the expression of genetic information in an individual, and how an individual's genetic makeup affects the metabolism and response to nutrients and other bioactive components in food.” [1]
The Human Genome Project took thirteen years to map the human genome in an international project, with around 3 billion base pairs that form the DNA [2].
One the genome has been sequenced for an organism, bacteria or virus then gene markers can be identified that signal for example the potential for disease. A genetic marker is a whole gene or a section of DNA sequence at a known location on a chromosome that can be used to identify the organism. These are sometimes described as polymorphisms where there can be more than variant of the genetic material. Single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced “snips”), are a single base pair variation and are the most common type of genetic variation and they can be a marker for different organisms. SNPs are copying errors and they can in some cases make the organism e.g. a human more susceptible to certain diseases.
Why is genomics important?
Understanding animals and plants at the gene level will help plant and animal breeders to understand how the genome and the expression of the information in it affects characteristics such as climate resistance, drought tolerance or productivity, yield, etc.
The interrelationship between our genes, how they are expressed and what we eat is being investigated by scientists too. Another benefit is that in a food safety incident genomics allows better and more accurate ways of identifying particular pathogens, how they behave and the pathways that the pathogen (bacteria or virus) has followed to go from source to humans.[3]
[1] Simopoulos, A. P. (2010). Nutrigenetics/nutrigenomics. Annual review of public health, 31, 53-68. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.031809.130844
[3] Kovac, J., den Bakker, H., Carroll, L. M., & Wiedmann, M. (2017). Precision food safety: a systems approach to food safety facilitated by genomics tools. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 96, 52-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2017.06.001
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