CIESE: Human Genetics: Dominance and Prevalence

How can I use the Human Genome project to answer questions I have about genetics?

Materials:

Objectives:

Understand how to search for information in the Human Genome Project
Search for information on traits used in the Human Genetics Project
Search for information on other traits or genetic disorders that are of interest
Find out more about specific genetic disorders from case studies

Procedures:

OMIM

Go to Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)
In the Search boxes near the top, leave the OMIM database setting and enter one of the traits from the Human Genetics project in the second box (for example, enter 'ear lobe').
You will be given a number of articles that are referenced by the trait you entered.
Scroll through and read some of the titles and find one that relates most to the Human Genetics Project or that interests you.
Click on your selection and read through the resulting page. What did you discover?
Next try entering a trait you are curious about such as 'hair color' or 'eye color'. What did you discover?
Finally, try entering in the search box a disease you would like to research such as 'heart disease' or 'alcoholism'. What did you discover?

NCBI

Go to National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
At the top click on 'BLAST'.
Next click on 'nucleotide blast'.
Now type in a sequence of nucleotides abbreviated by the letters A, G, C, T in the 'Enter accession number, gi, or FASTA sequence' box.
Addtionally, be sure to change the Database to 'Others (nr etc.)' so that you can compare the sequence you enter to all species in the database.
It may take time for the server to search for results to your search. If you entered a sequence that did not generate any results that's okay. You can go to complete sequence of Rattus norvegicus and scroll down until you get to the sequence of nucleotides. Select a chain of 10-20 nucleotides and use this as the basis for your search.
The results indicate what other nucleotide sequences matches were found and what organisms they came from. What did you discover? Similarity in sequences are what scientists use to discover relatedness amongst species.