the alternative genome

							                                        The Alternative Genome
How many genes have been identified in the human genome? How does this compare to the corn
genome?


What did this number tell scientists about the one gene one protein hypothesis?


What is alternative splicing?


Identify two benefits of alternative splicing


Approximately how many human genes are estimated to exhibit alternative splicing?
What is apoptosis?


In the explanation of alternative splicing, how many different mRNA templates are given as examples
from different splicing of the same gene?
What is an exon?


Are introns always discarded when splicing occurs? Why is this significant?


What is a spliceosome?


What is the most common type of alternative splicing found in mammals?


How long is the average human protein coding genes? Are introns or exons longer?


What are some of the costs associated with human introns?


In humans, what is one of the benefits of alternative splicing that outweighs it’s costs?


What percentage of the human genome is made up of exons? What does this suggest about
scientist’s early view that exons were the only valuable component of our DNA?
Mice and humans share not only the same number of genes, but the nucleotide sequence of those
genes is very similar. How is it possible that humans and mice are so different when they share most
of their genetic information?


What is a retrotransposon? What is their evolutionary significance?


Do humans have retrotransposons? If so what is it called?


How much of the human genome is made up of transposable elements? Wow!


Why are these transposable elements beneficial? Are they always beneficial? Why or why not?