• Question: What sort of data do you collect?

    Asked by ashleigh1234 to Jo on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jo Hulsmans

      Jo Hulsmans answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hello ashleigh, great question!

      I look at a full RNA profiles: I assume you know that living organisms have genes, bacteria have a couple of thousands, humans and the plant I am studying have between 22.000 and 30.000 genes. Genes are strings of DNA that contain the important part of our genetic code, but not all genes are active all the time or in the same amount. When a gene becomes active in transcribes its DNA into RNA which is then translated into proteins, and the proteins do all the work in the organism. It is quite difficult to measure proteins, but measuring RNA is a lot easier. We have developed amazing tools that allow us to measure the RNA of every gene in a plant at the same time, let me give you an example of what that can teach us:
      Say you have two plants (A and B) and A is infected with a pathogen while B is grown normally.

      If you measure the RNA levels for all genes between both plants you will see that most of them stay the same, but genes that are involved in protection against diseases will have higher expression levels in plant A. On the other hand, the expression level of genes that make chlorofyl (the green stuff in plants) will be lower, because the plant is fighting of an infection and has better uses for its energy than to make chlorofyl.

      I hope this answers your question, please ask more if you want to know more!

Comments

  • Photo: ashleigh1234

    ashleigh1234 commented on :

    What is DNA?

  • Photo: Barbara

    Barbara commented on :

    It’s the information inside every cell in our body which makes the cell do it’s job and makes us look and behave the way we do. It’s why some bits of us (nose shape or hair or eye colour for example) are like our Mum and other bits are like our dad and even less bits like one of our grandparents. But the mixing up of DNA, and which genes are turned on and off are why we are not exactly the same as our brothers or sisters. It is sometimes described as a library of information inside every cell but not all books are open at the same time, cos not all cells do the same job as a lung or a brain or a skin cell. Different books for different jobs.
    Let me know if that helped.