What is Homology?
Homology is a term used to describe similarities of organisms with a common ancestor in a phylogenic context [1]. Understanding the extent of these similarities allows you to find a model organism suitable for studies of your gene of interest. To find your homologs of interest, you can use the FASTA and BLAST databases.
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FH Homologs
Discussion: Model Organism
Since the FH gene is similar in all of these model organism, any one of them could technically be used to study HLRCC [2]. Since my phenotype of interest involves kidney cancer, some of these model organisms are unapplicable. Zebrafish FH protein is highly similar to human FH protein and is relatively inexpensive. This organisms is also transparent allow researches to see distinct phenotypes [3]. This is why I am choosing zebrafish as my model organism.
References:
[1] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2016). Homology. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/homology-evolution
[2] BLAST. (n.d.). Blast: Basic local alignment search tool. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
[3] Teame, T., Zhang, Z., Ran, C., Zhang, H., Yang, Y., Ding, Q., Xie, M., Gao, C., Ye, Y., Duan, M., & Zhou, Z. (2019, June 25). The use of zebrafish (danio rerio) as biomedical models. Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6951987/#:~:text=Currently%2C%20zebrafish%20are%20considered%20as,variety%20of%20foods%20(euryphagous).
Pictures:
Biorender
[2] BLAST. (n.d.). Blast: Basic local alignment search tool. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
[3] Teame, T., Zhang, Z., Ran, C., Zhang, H., Yang, Y., Ding, Q., Xie, M., Gao, C., Ye, Y., Duan, M., & Zhou, Z. (2019, June 25). The use of zebrafish (danio rerio) as biomedical models. Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6951987/#:~:text=Currently%2C%20zebrafish%20are%20considered%20as,variety%20of%20foods%20(euryphagous).
Pictures:
Biorender
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW-Madison.