wrote:
K Barrett wrote:
Scientists sequenced the genome of the honeybee.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061028/fob1.asp

In this article the reporter writes "Among the novelties of the honeybee,
Apis mellifera, are its 170 genes for odor receptors."

(snip)

But if this is the first time a species' genome has been looked at and if
there are only 5 other insects that have had their genome cracked, much less
studied, then 'How do they know?"

By comparison with known odor receptor genes in fruit flies, Drosophila
melanogaster. It doesn't actually matter how many insects have had
their genomes sequenced. What matters is that fruitflies have been
sequenced, AND their genes have been mutated to see what they do.


Yep. We bioinformatics geeks do this all the time. It doesn't much
matter that we haven't figured out all the honeybee genes, it does
matter that we know a lot about related genes in other organisms.

The 170 genes were probably mostly predicted computationally. We know
what coding DNA looks like from experience with other organisms. We
assume that it is similar in 'unknown' organisms. It is a computational
model (probably several different ones) that of course isn't perfect.
Perhaps some of those 170 genes aren't real, or slightly mis-predicted.
But we might have missed a few, too.

--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit