Life-sciences

Polymerase Chain Reaction Within the domain of atomic science, Polymerase Chain Response (PCR) stands as a foundation, revolutionizing the way researchers analyze and open up DNA. PCR, a capable method created by Kary Mullis in 1983, has gotten to be an crucial device in different logical disciplines, extending from hereditary qualities and forensics to restorative diagnostics. < Understanding the Essentials of PCR: PCR could be a strategy utilized to exponentially increase a particular portion of DNA, permitting analysts to produce millions of duplicates from a little beginning test. This handle includes three primary steps: denaturation, strengthening, and expansion. Amid denaturation, the DNA twofold helix is isolated into two single strands. Within the strengthening step, preliminaries tie to the focused on DNA grouping, and at long last, DNA polymerase synthesizes complementary strands amid the expansion stage. Applications of PCR in Medication: PCR has revolutionized restorati...

 What Is Microbiology   Microbiology is a scientific discipline that investigates the invisible world. It has been called the study of invisibility. We will explore the exciting world of microbiology in this article, focusing on its significance and vitality to our everyday existence. Basic Microbiology   The scientific discipline of microbiology is centered on the examination of tiny microorganisms. These include bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, etc. Bacteria are found in every corner of the world, and they have a profound impact on ecosystems, health, as well as industry.  Importance of microbiology  The role of bacteria in our daily lives is as important as their function in the environment or how they impact our bodies. They are essential in the recycling of nutrients, treatment of wastewater, and through fermentation (or other processes) to produce a diverse range of foods and beverages. Medical microbiology   Discover additional info...

 What Is Ecology  Ecology is the study of interaction of living organisms with their environment. For example, parasitism, mutualism, and symbiosis. Types Of Ecology  There are the following types of ecology. Parasitism: It's an ecological relationship between two living organisms. For example, mice, ticks, are parasites. In this relationship, one living organism is harmed and other gets the benefit. Mutualism  In this relationship, both organisms get benefit from each other. Lichen is an association between fungi and algae. Algae provides food whereas fungi provides shelter and helps to absorb minerals from soil.  Mycorrhiza It's an association between fungi and plant. Plant provides photosynthetic food to the fungi and fungi helps  plant to absorb water and nutrients from soil.

  Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): Unveiling the Blueprint of Precision DNA Amplification In the world of molecular biology, few techniques have had as profound an impact as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). This revolutionary process, developed in the mid-1980s by Kary B. Mullis, has transformed the field of genetics, medicine, forensic science, and countless other disciplines. By allowing scientists to amplify specific DNA sequences with incredible precision, PCR has unlocked new frontiers in research, diagnostics, and technology development. Understanding PCR: The Molecular Copy Machine At its core, PCR is a molecular copy machine that enables the rapid amplification of a specific segment of DNA. It achieves this through a repetitive cycling process that generates millions to billions of copies of the target DNA sequence. The beauty of PCR lies in its simplicity and versatility, making it a cornerstone technique in modern molecular biology laboratories. The Components of PCR ...

Thalassemia minor is a heterozygous condition in which one of the two alleles carries a mutant gene sequence. The carrier of beta-thalassemia minor does not show the severe symptoms of beta-thalassemia. However, if a beta-thalassemia carrier individual marries a thalassemia carrier woman, there is a 25% chance to transfer the disease to their offspring.  Screening of beta-thalassemia minor Carriers of beta-thalassemia may experience milder anemia and have fewer RBCs as compared to non-carrier individuals. In order to decrease the incidence of beta-thalassemia major, carriers must be screened for beta-thalassemia traits before marriage. Carrier counseling should be recommended to married couples to overcome the higher incidence of beta-thalassemia. There are different types of screening programs implemented at the national level including pre-marital screening, antenatal screening, and prenatal screening to control the rapidly increasing prevalence of beta-thalassemia. The pr...

Today, Thalassemia is one of the most prevalent hemoglobinopathies affecting millions of people worldwide. Thalassemia has become a major health concern globally. 65, 000 children are born with beta-thalassemia major every year. The prevalence of beta-thalassemia is increasing day by day due to a lack of awareness, increasing population, and cousin marriages. According to statistical reports, 1 of 100,000 individuals suffers from beta-thalassemia major worldwide. Thalassemia is characterized by a substitution mutation in the beta-globin gene. Hemoglobin supplies oxygenated blood throughout our bodies.  Symptoms of Beta Thalassemia Symptoms of beta-thalassemia include Pallor, hypoxia, jaundice, fatigue, and loss of appetite. The person suffering from beta-thalassemia requires regular blood transfusion once a week to survive. Due to continuous blood transfusion, there is an excess iron built up resulting in toxicity to other body organs including the liver, heart, pancreas, etc. So, ...

Genes are regulated by transcription regulators and enhancers. However, several other mechanisms are involved to functionally express a gene. Suppose a script is directed by specific regulators to express a particular gene sequence. If a cell is meant to produce a specific protein, the gene will be activated to produce a certain trait or protein. The false gene regulation can result into certain disorders, one of the predominant examples is cancer. In cancer, the transcription factors regulating cell division are mutated.   Difference between genetics and epigenetics Genetics is the transfer of genetic information from parent to offspring whereas epigenetic involves the process that control gene expression. The environment has a great influence on the expression of genes. So, if two individual are genetically similar, there may be a greater differences regarding the phenotypes due to changes in the gene expression. The genetic material is same but the expression is different. ...

Cloning is a biological term used to make multiple copies of a particular organism by using the asexual method. Cloning can be of different types including bacterial cloning, fission, etc. We can use the process to make multiple copies of a particular gene by using a particular vector i.e., E.coli. The most commonly used biological vectors are plasmids (extrachromosomal structures in bacteria).                                        The first animal was cloned by splitting embryos in a test tube and the resulting embryos were transferred to the womb of adult female mice. Following that, biologists produced several other animals including cows, sheep, cattle, horses, mules, ox, etc. The nucleus can be transferred to the recipient organism by using two methods. One of the methods involves the removal of the nucleus by injecting a needle and transferring it to another cell. The second metho...

Crispr stands for clustered regularly Interspaced Palindromic Regions, while cas9 is a restriction enzyme cutting DNA from a specific site. The Crispr sequences are derived from bacteriophages affecting bacteria previously, bacterium recognizes the sequences and degrades it. One of the major contributions regarding crispr-cas9 was brought about by an eminent biochemist and geneticist Jennifer Duodna and a French researcher Emmenuella Cherpentier. They were also awarded with Nobel Prize for their remarkable contributions to science in 2020. Crispr-Cas9 is one of the latest gene-editing tools to cure genetic disorders by genetic manipulation. The process takes place naturally in bacterium as a defensive mechanism against viruses. During the process, guide RNA binds with specific complementary sequence resulting in the formation of RNA-DNA hybrid, guide RNA makes sure that DNA should be cut from the specific site. Consequently, complex is degraded by the enzyme cas9. Repair mechanism...

 Antimicrobial Resistance  Antimicrobial Resistance is the ability of a microbe to resist antibiotics designed to kill or prevent the growth of the microbe. AMR is a global problem, affecting millions of people worldwide. In the United States, AMR is a serious health concern affecting around 3 million people.  Microbes attain antimicrobial resistance due to the over-dosage of antibiotics resulting in resistance to pathogens. A more important cause of antimicrobial resistance is the genetic change in the microbe's genome, which may cause antimicrobial resistance. Due to the advent of multidrug-resistant bacteria, infectious diseases are being more prevalent affecting the health system severely worldwide.  What are Superbugs Superbugs are micro-organisms resistant to a variety of antibiotics. If we are faced with the emergence of such a kind of superbug, it would be a challenge for us to control the spread of the pathogen.  How can we prevent AMR We can...

Antibiotics are the medications used to combat bacterial or even viral infection i.e., erythromycin, gentamycin,  penicillin etc. , Antibiotics are obtained from bacterial strains and are effective against variety of microbial agents. The first antibiotic discovered was penicillium isolated from a fungi called " Penicillium Notatum " by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. Antibiotics are proved exceptionally effective regarding the treatment of several infections including influenza virus, common cold etc. The term antibiotic indicates that they are used against living organisms. They are isolated from living organisms and used to prevent the growth of other living organisms. Antibiotics were discovered coincidentally in 1877, when Louis Pasteur observed growth inhibition by a bacterium that stopped the growth of another bacterium called  Bacillus Anthracis.     Antimicrobial Resistance:  Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most common health concern ...

What is Life? Biologically, we can call any being as living when it grows, reproduces, excretes, respond to change in the environment. Considering the said definition of life, viruses are living organisms only when they are inside a living host, as when outside the body, they are in the form of crystals. So, they depend on host metabolic machinery to reproduce or replication. They are infectious and can be spread from one organism to another through different routes of transmission, including air, aerosol droplets, sexual contact, fecal matter, etc. Viruses are of different types, some have DNA, some lack DNA and use RNA to replicate by the process of reverse transcription. One of the most popular examples of RNA viruses is AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)Viruses have proteins covering their genome termed as capsids. 

 Quantified Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR is one of the most common techniques employed to diagnose or find out a novel mutant sequence in any bacterial strain. Apart from diagnosis, PCR has many other applications as well, including sequencing whole genome of a new bacterial strain. Apart from conventional PCR,  many other procedures have have been invented to diagnose a certain infectious or genetic disorder.  qPCR is designed by scientists to find out the expression level of a protein. We determine the quantity of RNA produced involved to form a particular protein with the help of qPCR. How qPCR works During qPCR, a specific gene sequence is amplified by the action of reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase converts mRNA into double stranded cDNA, this cDNA is amplified by using PCR. The thermal cycler used for PCR produces fluorescence to quantify the gene expression level.  Fluorometer detects the florescence in real time process is also termed as RT-P...

Nested PCR Nested PCR is one of the types of PCR designed to ensure specificity and accuracy of experiment. The main purpose of utilizing the Nested PCR is reduce the possibility of occurrence of non-specific bands.  In conventional types of PCR, there are more chances that we get non-specific bands, so Nested PCR is introduced to overcome the drawback.  Two primers are used during the said reaction. First two set of primers are used for the amplification of initial product, whereas the product acquired from the first round is used to amplify the targeted sequence by using second set set of primers. So that is quite less likely that we get any non-specific or unwanted bands contaminating our desired product. The primers of the first round are termed as the outer primers and are used to let the inner primers or nested primers to anneal to a specific DNA sequence. Outer primers are present upstream of the internal primers.  Nested PCR requires smaller number of cycles aroun...

 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is an in vitro biochemical reaction used in molecular biology laboratories to produce multiple copies of a specific gene sequence. A particular fragment of gene or a gene fragment is amplified by using primers complimentary to sequence needs to be amplified. The technique was first invented by a scientist Kary Mullis in 1983. The procedure functions similar to the DNA replication a natural phenomenon making multiple copies. However, in PCR, we make multiple copies of gene by using a DNA polymerase isolated from a microbe surviving hot springs " Thermus Aquaticus ", as the enzyme can withstand the high temperature needs to undergo the process of polymerization. One of the most important ingredients of the chemical reaction are primers, i.e., forward and reverse primers. Forward primers adds nucleotides in 5' to 3' direction whereas reverse primers add nucleotide from 3' to 5' direction. Primer...

The emergence of covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan city of Chine in December, 2019. The virus is a mutant form of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) The virus is found to be highly contagious due to the presence of a spike protein that tends to bind specifically receptor sites present on lung tissue. The pandemic created an alarming situation and everything halted due to this deadly and contagious virus. There are some controversies regarding the emergence of virus, as some people assume that virus has been created by biological method by Chinese scientists with some unforeseen motives.  However, efforts are still on to completely eliminate the virus to let mankind take a breath of relief. Researchers have sequenced the whole genome of the virus, and found very unique  Genes  sequence causing the respiratory illness in human. Only 14% of the individuals have been reported with severe form of illness like respiratory failure, hypoxia. According to researches, vi...