Genetics Links

There are two recent genetics related posts on other blogs that evolgen readers might find interesting:

First, check out Query Gene (via ScienceRoll). This web-ap allows you to couple a nucleotide blast search with a Google search for a term related to your blast query. Here is how the creators describe it:

Query Gene is a web-based program that searches for information about genetic sequences on the web. It is distinctive because it is not limited to a single database, but instead captures genetic information on the entire Internet using Google. Query Gene works by taking a gene sequence in combination with other search terms, finds similar sequences using NCBI's MegaBlast, retrieves the descriptions of those matching genes from NCBI's Entrez Nucleotide database, and performs a series of Google searches using the combination of your original search terms and each gene description. The percent sequence identity is indicated alongside each match: this indicates how much of your queried sequence is contained in the sequence it matches.

That's a pretty cool mash-up for those of you doing small-scale work with blast.

The second item is a post from MissPrism in which she describes genetic mapping. This actually stems from a previous post where she bitched about science writers conflating genome sequencing with the genetic code. Who would waste their time criticizing science writers? Definitely not me. Never. Anyway, check out both posts from MissPrism -- she does a great job explaining the genetic code, DNA sequencing, and genetic maps.