Genome Structure
Objectives
- Recognize the difference in genome structure between eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
- Define ploidy, diploid, haploid, aneuploid.
- Define karyogram, karyotype, ideogram.
- Describe the genome of a cell or organism as a multiple of n, where n=haploid number of chromosomes.
- Recognize that most of a eukaryotic genome is not protein-coding sequence.
- Define LINE, SINE, and transposable element.
Introduction
The genome of prokaryotic organisms is typically composed of a single circular DNA molecule, or chromosome. In eukaryotic species, the nuclear genome is typically divided among multiple individual DNA molecules, or chromosomes. Eukaryotic chromosomes are linear. In both bacterial and eukaryotic chromosomes, protein-coding genes are interspersed with other DNA sequence.
This chapter looks more at how prokaryotic and eukaryotic chromosomes are organized, described, and visualized.
