GENOME SEQUENCING – SCI & TECH
News: The ‘Black Death’ causing bacteria’s prehistoric trail has been traced
by scientists thanks to advanced gene-sequencing techniques
What is in the news?
●
Recently, scientists have
identified the prehistoric trail of the Black Death causing bacteria by using
genome sequences.
What is genome sequence?
●
An organism’s complete
set of DNA is called the genome. Genome sequencing is simply known as
determining the complete order of the bases in a strand of DNA.
Applications of genome sequencing:
1. Finding vulnerability of the disease:
●
The differences between
an individual’s genome to the identified average genome can be used to find the
susceptibility to a disease.
2. Evaluate rare disorders:
●
Genome sequencing has
been used to evaluate rare disorders, preconditions for disorders, even cancer
from the viewpoint of genetics.
3. Finding genetic disorders:
●
It has also been used as
a tool for prenatal screening, to investigate whether the foetus has genetic
disorders or anomalies.
4. CRISPR technology:
●
The technology called
Crispr, which relies on sequencing, may potentially allow scientists to repair
disease-causing mutations in human genomes.
5. Diagnosing cancers:
●
Liquid biopsies, where a
small amount of blood is examined for DNA markers, could help diagnose cancer
long before symptoms appear.
6. Decoding the virus:
●
In public health,
however, sequencing has been used to read the codes of viruses.
7. Slow down the virus transmission:
●
a group of scientists
from M.I.T and Harvard sequenced samples of Ebola from infected African
patients to show how genomic data of viruses could reveal hidden pathways of
transmission, which might then be halted, thus slowing or even preventing the
infection’s spread.
8. Potential treatment of diseases:
●
Creating datasets by
collecting genomic profiles across the population, allowing to develop greater
understanding of causative factors and potential treatments of diseases.
●
This can be used to treat
rare genetic disorders.
9. Sustainable agriculture:
●
Similar benefits will
come to agriculture if there is a better understanding of the genetic basis of
the susceptibility of plants to pests, insects and other issues hampering
productivity.
Challenges:
1. Ethical concern:
●
Many doctors and field
experts have said that this practice is against the ethics of nature and could
lead to gene modification or selective breeding.
2. Privacy threat:
●
Major issue is that the
data collected through this mechanism can be a possible misuse of genetic
information.
3. Reinforcing racism:
●
The GIP raises concerns
about the potential for scientific
racism and the reinforcement of stereotypes based on heredity and racial
purity.
What is the Genome India Project?
●
India’s 1.3
billion-strong population consists of over 4,600 population groups, many of
which are endogamous.
●
The Indian population harbors distinct
variations, with disease-causing mutations often amplified within some of these
groups.
●
Creating a database of
Indian genomes allows researchers to learn about genetic variants unique to India’s
population groups and use that to customize drugs and therapies.
●
It is a scientific
initiative inspired by the Human Genome
Project (HGP), an international effort that successfully decoded the entire
human genome between 1990 and 2003.
●
The project was started in 2020, aiming to better understand the genetic variations
and disease-causing mutations specific to the Indian population, which is
one of the most genetically diverse in the world.
●
The project involves the
collaboration of 20 institutions across India and is being led by the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science
in Bangalore.