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Gene Therapy and Probes - Coggle Diagram
Gene Therapy and Probes
Gene Therapy:
This has allowed use of RNAi (interference RNA) to bind to mRNA in order to silence it (prevent expression of a particular gene).
RNAi is currently used to treat Cytomegalovirus infection in AIDS patients by blocking its replication.
Gene therapy is basically getting a working copy of that gene into the cells to make the associated protein.
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DNA Probes:
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The probe is either labelled radioactively or using a fluorescent substance that responds to UV light.
This is a short, single-stranded piece of DNA, about 50-80 nucleotides long.
Copies of the probe are added to the different DNA fragments, if any complementary base-sequence is present it will bind to it. This is called annealing.
Microarray
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Firstly, DNA probes are made that are complementary to base sequences found in the particular faulty allele of a gene.
Scientists can attach a series of different DNA probes to a fixed surface – called a DNA microarray.
Applying the DNA sample to the surface can reveal the presence of faulty or mutated alleles that match the probes because the sample DNA will anneal to any complementary fixed probes.
For this to work, the sample DNA must first be broken up into smaller fragments and may undergo PCR.
Uses of DNA Probes
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To identify the same gene on a variety of different genomes, e.g. when comparing different species.
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