Learn how the ENCODE project helps scientists in understanding the way our genome is organized and regulated
ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements), a collaborative project begun in 2003, was aimed at compiling an inventory of all the functional elements of the human genome.
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Transcript
[Music in]
NEIL LAMB: As an analogy, think of a passage from a favorite book. Imagine the text is missing punctuation, spacing, and those visual cues that make sense of the language. All you have are the individual letters that make up the words. If we add in parts of our language beyond just the letters, we can provide meaning to the string of text--capital letters and periods that flag the breaks between sentences, commas that highlight a pause in thought or set off a list of items, quotation marks to link speaker and speech. From a string of seeming nonsense, great literature appears.
In a similar way, the ENCODE project is helping scientists make sense of the human genome, by understanding the great biological language contained in the chemical letters of our DNA. The human genome contains 3.2 billion letters. The human genome project determined the location of more than 20,000 genes, specific instructions that tell the cell how to make proteins such as hemoglobin or insulin. However, areas of the genome we can recognize as genes only take up a small part of the physical genome, leaving the functional significance of much of the genome a mystery. The ENCODE project is the genetic equivalent of providing spacing and punctuation, a set of experiments that determine which pieces of DNA regulate the action and story line of the genome--for example, identifying regions where proteins called transcription factors bind the DNA to control gene activity. Other experiments searched for DNA methylation, small molecules that attach to the DNA sequence, suddenly changing the shape of the molecule and conveying additional information to the cell's machinery. Transcription factor binding or DNA methylation might greatly increase or completely silence the activity of a corresponding gene, dramatically altering the level of protein it produces. This may have important consequences for how the cell functions or interacts with neighboring cells. All told, 1,649 experiments were performed. From these, scientists identified the location of millions of functional elements in our genome.
Since these data are publicly available to anyone, scientists in all fields can use this information to produce an integrated picture of our genome. The ENCODE project seeks to better understand the way our genome is organized and regulated, providing insight into human health and disease.
[Music out]
NEIL LAMB: As an analogy, think of a passage from a favorite book. Imagine the text is missing punctuation, spacing, and those visual cues that make sense of the language. All you have are the individual letters that make up the words. If we add in parts of our language beyond just the letters, we can provide meaning to the string of text--capital letters and periods that flag the breaks between sentences, commas that highlight a pause in thought or set off a list of items, quotation marks to link speaker and speech. From a string of seeming nonsense, great literature appears.
In a similar way, the ENCODE project is helping scientists make sense of the human genome, by understanding the great biological language contained in the chemical letters of our DNA. The human genome contains 3.2 billion letters. The human genome project determined the location of more than 20,000 genes, specific instructions that tell the cell how to make proteins such as hemoglobin or insulin. However, areas of the genome we can recognize as genes only take up a small part of the physical genome, leaving the functional significance of much of the genome a mystery. The ENCODE project is the genetic equivalent of providing spacing and punctuation, a set of experiments that determine which pieces of DNA regulate the action and story line of the genome--for example, identifying regions where proteins called transcription factors bind the DNA to control gene activity. Other experiments searched for DNA methylation, small molecules that attach to the DNA sequence, suddenly changing the shape of the molecule and conveying additional information to the cell's machinery. Transcription factor binding or DNA methylation might greatly increase or completely silence the activity of a corresponding gene, dramatically altering the level of protein it produces. This may have important consequences for how the cell functions or interacts with neighboring cells. All told, 1,649 experiments were performed. From these, scientists identified the location of millions of functional elements in our genome.
Since these data are publicly available to anyone, scientists in all fields can use this information to produce an integrated picture of our genome. The ENCODE project seeks to better understand the way our genome is organized and regulated, providing insight into human health and disease.
[Music out]
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