Chapter 21, Problem 10P

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The number of pseudo genes related to a particular gene in an organism whose complete genome had not been sequenced should be experimentally determined.

Concept introduction:

Pseudo genes are the segments of DNA which have a relationship to the real genes. Pseudo genes loose some functionality compared to a fully functional gene such as gene expression or protein coding ability. Pseudo genes are not fully functional but can function similar to other kind of the non-coding DNA which perform some regulatory functions. The pseudo gene implies a variation in sequence comparative to the parent coding gene but may not be pseudo in function.

Some of the pseudo genes do not have promoters or introns in them and such pseudo genes are copied from the mRNA and get incorporated into chromosome are known as processed pseudo genes while the others have gene-like features like the promoters.