Bioinformatics Research Laboratory
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An Approch to Define Molecular Biology of Leukemia Virus  
 

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Description
Retrovirus A type of virus that carries its genetic material as single-stranded RNA, rather than as DNA. Upon infecting a cell, the virus generates a DNA replica of its RNA using the enzyme reverse transcriptase.
Reading frame A sequence of codons beginning with an intiation codon and ending with a termination codon, typically of at least 150 bases (50 amino acids) coding for a polypeptide or protein chain (see ORF and URF).
Recursion An algorithmic procedure whereby an algorithm calls on itself to perform a calculation until the result exceeds a threshold, in which case the algorithm exits. Recursion is a powerful procedure with which to process data and is computationally quite efficient.
Repeats (repeat sequences) Repeat sequences and approximate repeats occur throughout the DNA of higher organisms (mammals). For example, the Alu sequences of length about 300 characters, appear hundreds of thousands of times in Human DNA with about 87% homology to a consensus Alu string. Some short substrings such as TATA-boxes, poly-A and (TG)* also appear more often than by chance. Repeat sequences may also occur within genes, as mutations or alterations to those genes. Repetitive sequences, especially mobile elements, have many applications in genetic research. DNA transposons and retroposons are routinely used for insertional mutagenesis, gene mapping, gene tagging, and gene transfer in several model systems.
Repetitive elements Repetitive elements provide important clues about chromosome dynamics, evolutionary forces, and mechanisms for exchange of genetic information between organisms The most ubiquitous class of repetitive elements in the DNA sequence in primate genomes is the Alu family of interspersed repeats which have arisen in the last 65 million years of evolution Alu repeats belong to a class of sequences defined as short interspersed elements (SINEs). Approximately 500,000 Alu SINEs exist within the human genome, representing about 5% of the genome by mass.

 
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