Genetics techniques

techniques used to study nucleic acids: DNA and RNA

biochemical method

Ribotyping is a molecular technique for bacterial identification and characterization that uses information from rRNA-based phylogenetic analyses. It is a rapid and specific method widely used in clinical diagnostics and analysis of microbial communities in food, water, and beverages.

molecular biology

thumb|upright=2|Screenshot of a chromatogram inside the program "Sequencher" thumb|upright=3|Capillary Electrophoresis to Electropherogram process (Courtesy of www.biointeractive.org) thumb|300px|Generation of results

Nullomers are short sequences of DNA that do not occur in the genome of a species (for example, humans), even though they are theoretically possible. Nullomers must be under selective pressure - for example, they may be toxic to the cell. Some nullomers have been shown to be useful to treat leukemia, breast, and prostate cancer. They are not useful in healthy cells because normal cells adapt and become immune to them. Nullomers are also being developed for use as DNA tags to prevent cross contamination when analyzing crime scene material.

deliberate fragmentation of DNA in preparation for analysis

Iterons are directly repeated DNA sequences which play an important role in regulation of plasmid copy number in bacterial cells. It is one among the three negative regulatory elements found in plasmids which control its copy number. The others are antisense RNAs and ctRNAs. Iterons complex with cognate replication (Rep) initiator proteins to achieve the required regulatory effect.