Chapter 22, Problem 1PDQ

HOW DO WE KNOW?

In this chapter, we focused on a number of interesting applications of genetic engineering, genomics, and biotechnology. At the same time, we found many opportunities to consider the methods and reasoning by which much of this information was acquired. From the explanations given in the chapter, what answers would you propose to the following fundamental questions?

1. (a) What experimental evidence confirms that we have introduced a useful gene into a transgenic organism and that it performs as we anticipate?
2. (b) How does a positive ASO test for sickle-cell anemia determine that an individual is homozygous recessive for the mutation that causes sickle-cell anemia?
3. (c) From microarray analysis how do we know what genes are being expressed in a specific tissue?
4. (d) How can we correlate the genome with RNA expression data in a tissue or a single cell?
5. (e) From GWAS how do we know which genes are associated with a particular genetic disorder?