As the armchair biologist reading all manner of resources on genetics you soon keep coming across codes like FMR1, CCR5 and FOXP2 referred to in many of the articles. What is going on? These are what I have termed Human Gene Codes.
Well this is how all the genes within the human genome have been named individually. They are little bits of coherent code that define how something is finally made in your body. But just to set the context correctly these types of codes are also used for other genomes not just humans. They exist for mice, fruit flies and peas in fact for any living organism. Anything where DNA exists defining the master plan for making that organism. Mice, fruit flies and peas have been listed because, believe it or not, most of the early genetic research focussed on these three living things. Mainly because all three reproduced quickly best supporting this type of research that needed to be undertaken over many of the living thing generations.
Now just deviating slightly off from the subject of Gene Codes we need to just give ourselves an appreciation of how small everything is in the world of genetics. Watching an ant running around a paving slab in the hot sun measuring between 2-3 mm in length reminds you that stored within all his living cells is DNA that defines the building of the ant. In fact the ant has all the same capabilities as a human. Head, brain, nervous system, digestive system, legs, eyes and so forth. The majority of the DNA will be identical to that of a human except in the process of evolution the DNA went down the insect branch rather than the mammal branch so some differences will exist. So this should allow you to better visualise how big a gene is since in the ant and the human the actual gene is the same size.
So what about the documentation of genes that go across all species. This is a specialist area in bioinformatics called Gene Ontology (GO). So let us just confirm at bioinformatics is the interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data. So bioinformatics is the study of the Digital Human in an informal way. Gene Ontology (GO) looks to maintain and develop a controlled vocabulary (the FMR letter codes) of genes and gene products attributes. Now just to complicate matters the Gene Ontology (GO) is part of a larger classification effort, the Open Biomedical Ontologies, being one of the initial Candidate Members of the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry. Currently there are more than hundred ontologies that follow the OBO Foundry principles. (http://obofoundry.org) .
Now do not get too confused by all these names of bodies looking to mark up biological data. Firstly the term ontology is not anything to do with biology. It is more to do with philosophy. It is about defining entities (ie things) that exist by giving them a name or label. The grouping of like things is part of the process then often establishing hierarchies of related things. So for the terms used say in banking or retailing or manufacturing or logistics you could create an ontology. Think of it being like an index or glossary. Now the fact biology is now getting around to drawing up ontologies is significant because it is a prerequisite to establishing data processing, information processing and artificial intelligence processing. It is getting the building blocks of data analysis in place. But with the biological sciences it is much more complex than anything in the commercial computing world.
So next time you see say “FOXP2” can I suggest you use the Genetics Home Reference site search to look it up at http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov . So try looking at FM03 which causes Trimethylaminuria the genic disorder that makes you smell like a fish. This site contains a huge list of these Gene Codes. So next time you read something and a code like “FREM2” comes up use this website to look up the details.
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