1.EwwPhysics wrote: ↑March 3rd, 2020, 10:56 am 1. What are nucleosomes?
2. Why does X inactivation occur?
3. What are some common applications of PCR?
4. Briefly explain mosaicism
Nucleosomes are the functional packing units in chromatin, with DNA being wrapped around an octamer 1.65 times along with the H1 linker histone.
It's toxic to the cell to have 2 X chromosomes, as it will produce twice the amount of proteins needed. Therefore, cells randomly deactivate one of the chromosomes.
PCR can be used to diagnose genetic diseases which deal with the mutations of the reading frame, construct forensic genetic fingerprinting through comparing the DNA samples of multiple suspects, and can find whether cells are under the influence of harmful viruses from RNA reverse-transcription.
Mosaicism is when some cells have a different genetic code then the rest of the cells, resulting in some cells expressing differently then others. This can result from random X-deactivation or a genetic mutation after fertilization in only some of the cells.