BSCI 410 
Molecular Genetics 
Fall 2008  

Questions about material covered on exam 2.

The following are questions and answers from students regarding Exam 2 (2008).
Each question is offset with a horizontal line.

How would you define complexity of DNA?

Genome complexity can be defined as the number of distinct DNA sequences.

For example, the complexity of (GCATTG)n or GCATTGGCATTGGCATTGGCATTGGCATTGGCATTGG... is six nucleotides, no matter how long it goes. A 100 kb. genome that has not repeats has a complexity of 100,000 while a 100 kb. genome that is a perfect dimer of the same 50,000 repeated twice has a complexity of 50,000 and one that consists entirely of a 50 base pair region repeated 2,000 times has a complexity of 50. Complexity is measured by hybridization rates.

The time (and or concentration) required for hybridization is proportional to the complexity, so complexity can be measured by rates of hybridization.

The link that explains the 454 sequencing technology is broken. What is the correct link?

454.com/products- solutions/how-it-works/index. asp is the current link.

There is also a nice review of the next generation sequencing technologies in the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology. (That's October 2008 Nature Biotechnology; especially Shendure and Ji , especially Fig. 1.)