Genetics Fundamentals

The study of genomes, known as genomics, involves analyzing and understanding the function and regulation of all the genes present in an organism, as well as the non-coding DNA that is present between those genes. This can help researchers understand how an organism develops and functions, and can also provide insights into the evolution of different species.
 

A genome is the complete set of genetic material present in an organism. It consists of all the genetic information that is needed to build and maintain that organism, and is encoded in DNA (or, in some viruses, RNA). The genome includes all of an organism's genes, as well as the non-coding DNA that is present between those genes.

Genomes vary in size and complexity depending on the type of organism. For example, the human genome consists of approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA and contains around 20,000 protein-coding genes. In comparison, the genome of a simple bacterium such as Escherichia coli may contain only around 4.6 million base pairs and just over 4,000 genes.