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Genetic Ecology
Genetic ecology is the study of the stability and expression of varying genetic material within abiotic mediums. Typically, genetic data is not thought of outside of any organism save for criminal forensics. However, genetic material has the ability to be taken up by various organisms that exist within an abiotic medium through natural transformations that may occur. Thus, this field of study focuses on interaction, exchange, and expression of genetic material that may not be shared by species had they not been in the same environment. History E.B. Ford was the first geneticist to begin work in this field of study. E.B. Ford worked mostly during the 1950s and is most noted for his work with ''Maniola jurtina'' and published a book entitled ''Ecological Genetics'' in 1975. This type of evolutionary biological study was only possible after gel electrophoresis had been designed in 1937. Prior to this, a high throughput method for DNA analysis did not exist. This field of study began t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrylamide
Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH2=CHC(O)NH2. It is a white odorless solid, soluble in water and several organic solvents. From the chemistry perspective, acrylamide is a vinyl-substituted primary amide (CONH2). It is produced industrially mainly as a precursor to polyacrylamides, which find many uses as water-soluble thickeners and flocculation agents. Acrylamide forms in burnt areas of food, particularly starchy foods like potatoes, when cooked with high heat, above . Despite health scares following this discovery in 2002, and its classification as a probable carcinogen, acrylamide from diet is thought unlikely to cause cancer in humans; Cancer Research UK categorized the idea that eating burnt food causes cancer as a "myth". Production Acrylamide can be prepared by the hydration of acrylonitrile, which is catalyzed enzymatically: :CH2=CHCN + H2O → CH2=CHC(O)NH2 This reaction also is catalyzed by sulfuric acid as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacterial Transformation
In molecular biology and genetics, transformation is the genetic alteration of a cell resulting from the direct uptake and incorporation of exogenous genetic material from its surroundings through the cell membrane(s). For transformation to take place, the recipient bacterium must be in a state of competence, which might occur in nature as a time-limited response to environmental conditions such as starvation and cell density, and may also be induced in a laboratory. Transformation is one of three processes that lead to horizontal gene transfer, in which exogenous genetic material passes from one bacterium to another, the other two being conjugation (transfer of genetic material between two bacterial cells in direct contact) and transduction (injection of foreign DNA by a bacteriophage virus into the host bacterium). In transformation, the genetic material passes through the intervening medium, and uptake is completely dependent on the recipient bacterium. As of 2014 about 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horizontal Gene Transfer
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT) is the movement of genetic material between organisms other than by the ("vertical") transmission of DNA from parent to offspring (reproduction). HGT is an important factor in the evolution of many organisms. HGT is influencing scientific understanding of higher-order evolution while more significantly shifting perspectives on bacterial evolution. Horizontal gene transfer is the primary mechanism for the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and plays an important role in the evolution of bacteria that can degrade novel compounds such as human-created Bactericide, pesticides and in the evolution, maintenance, and transmission of virulence. It often involves Temperateness (virology), temperate bacteriophages and plasmids. Genes responsible for antibiotic resistance in one species of bacteria can be transferred to another species of bacteria through various mechanisms of HGT such as Transformation (genetics), tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agrobacterium Tumefaciens
''Agrobacterium tumefaciens'' (also known as ''Rhizobium radiobacter'') is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of eudicots. It is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative soil bacterium. Symptoms are caused by the insertion of a small segment of DNA (known as T-DNA, for 'transfer DNA', not to be confused with tRNA that transfers amino acids during protein synthesis), from a plasmid into the plant cell, which is incorporated at a semi-random location into the plant genome. Plant genomes can be engineered by use of '' Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of sequences hosted in T-DNA binary vectors. ''Agrobacterium tumefaciens'' is an Alphaproteobacterium of the family Rhizobiaceae, which includes the nitrogen-fixing legume symbionts. Unlike the nitrogen-fixing symbionts, tumor-producing ''Agrobacterium'' species are pathogenic and do not benefit the plant. The wide variety of plants affected by ''Agrobacterium'' makes it of great concern to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viruses
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 16,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail. The study of viruses is known as virology, a subspeciality of microbiology. When infected, a host cell is often forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of the original virus. When not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent viral particles, or ''virions'', consisting of (i) genetic material, i.e., long molecules of DNA or RNA that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Genetics
Ecological genetics is the study of genetics in natural populations. It combines ecology, evolution, and genetics to understand the processes behind adaptation. It is virtually synonymous with the field of molecular ecology. This contrasts with classical genetics, which works mostly on crosses between laboratory strains, and DNA sequence analysis, which studies genes at the molecular level. Research in this field is on traits of ecological significance—traits that affect an organism's fitness, or its ability to survive and reproduce. Examples of such traits include flowering time, drought tolerance, polymorphism, mimicry, and avoidance of attacks by predators.Ruxton G.D. Sherratt T.N. and Speed M.P. 2004. ''Avoiding attack: the evolutionary ecology of crypsis, warning signals & mimicry''. Oxford University Press. Research usually involves a mixture of field and laboratory studies. Samples of natural populations may be taken back to the laboratory for their genetic varia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian friar working in the 19th century in Brno, was the first to study genetics scientifically. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring over time. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene. Phenotypic trait, Trait inheritance and Molecular genetics, molecular inheritance mechanisms of genes are still primary principles of genetics in the 21st century, but modern genetics has expanded to study the function and behavior of genes. Gene structure and function, variation, and distribution are studied within the context of the Cell (bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
