In classical biology, genetics is the study of inheritance in living organisms. Here, we attempt to describe many of the most important constant terms that you will encounter in the synthetic biology field using analogies that you may be more familiar with. Genetics is an enormous field formed of many specialities, and can be confusing to the newcomer, but it is perhaps best to think of it as a descriptive engineering discipline concerned with how organisms create the information systems that define how they execute the process of life itself.
To appreciate the importance of genetics, you will first need to know about the central dogma of biology: DNA codes for RNA which is translated into proteins, which are the biological 'machines' at work in cells.
What are Genomes?
The genome represents the entire genetic material of an organism. It refers to the total DNA present within a single cell of an organism and has all the information required to produce a complete organism. The genome includes both genes (coding regions) and non-coding sequences of DNA.
What are Genes?
What is DNA?
What are Amino Acids?
What are Proteins?
What are Enzymes?
What are Cells?
What do you think?
About the authors
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Jérôme Lutz
from Berlin & Munich, Germany
I like to share the great things I discover daily while researching and working in the field of Synthetic Biology. When I talk to people about it, they often refer to Science Fiction. However, when I send them links to this wiki and they read through those pages, they start understanding that this is real and it's happening right now. |
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Jake Curtis
from London
I am a student at Cambridge University who has just finished a BA in Natural Sciences, focusing on Genetics in my third year. I am now studying for an MSc in Systems Biology. |
3 Comments
Lena Asai
It would be nice to simplify the wording for some of the articles so that synbio beginners can understand the explanations. Especially for the "what are genomes?" one. Good start!
Jérôme Lutz
Lena, you are a visionary! You posted this in August, in November I had the idea to build our Interprtr - the browser extension that highlights and describes all those funky words in biology. Probably this comment got stuck in my brain back then
Lena Asai