Explain how ESTs are identified and how they aid in finding the genes within an organism's genome
What will be an ideal response?
To identify expressed sequence tags, or ESTs, mRNA must first be isolated from cells. This mRNA is converted into complementary DNA (cDNA) with the use of specialized nucleic acid polymerases. The nucleotide sequence of a short region of each cDNA is then determined. Each short sequence (or EST) corresponds to a portion of a gene that was expressed in the cells from which the mRNA was isolated; each sequence can be used as a tag to identify or manipulate the gene from which it came. A collection of ESTs can be input into a computer to search for matches to the total genome sequence and can thereby identify the sequences and chromosomal locations of many genes.
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