A motivating video on genomics:

 

The goal of this teaching item is to explore the DNA structure of genes and relate it to evolution. This is done through the use of a scientific discovery game, Phylo, that allows to perform sequence alignments in an intuitive manner. The results are latter put in perspective in a short report.

 

Play the game:

– play a few puzzles to get the functioning of the alignment interface; after 20 you will be able to enter the expert section (which is even more fun).

 

Write a report answering the following questions:

– what does the score corresponds to?

– do you think the scoring matrix should change as a function of the organisms evaluated? why?

[useful sources: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0031362#s4 (phylo)]
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/13/1/103.full.pdf+html (blastz)]

– Can you imagine how some mutations could have more/less influence on the phenotype than others?

– Should they be more/less conserved through evolution?

 

Phylo Exercise by Antoine Taly and Jerome Waldispuhl est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution – Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 3.0 France.