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Home >> Dictionary of Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology >>Artificial Cells ASO Probe Allele Specific Oligo
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Arthus reaction An inflammatory response caused by the production or deposition or antigen-antibody complexes in tissues.
Artifact The appearance of a structure in microscopy or an experimental result that is not real but arises as a result of experimental procedures.
Artificial cells Cells designed for specific applications that combine properties of biological systems such as nanoscale efficiency, self-organisation and adaptability at relatively low cost. Individual components needed for such structures have already been developed, and now the main challenge is to integrate them in functional microscopic compartments.
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Artificial insemination The injection of semen into the mouth of the uterus to make conception possible. It is used in the breeding of domestic animals.
Artificial intelligence (Al) An area of computer programming techniques that attempt to capture aspects of human intelligence. Al products use human intelligence as a model to develop a computer version of human intelligence. The applications of biotechnology include expert systems, neural nets, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms. Expert systems are used in bioreactor control systems, neural nets are trained to recognise patterns in large masses of data, fuzzy logic quantifies the degree of truth or falseness and genetic algorithms that use the power of natural selection to find a solution to a problem.
Artificial medium See culture medium.
Artificial nose An artificial sensor that mimics the nose that has a number of sensory proteins on the surface of its nerve cells which bind many chemicals and transmit impulses to the brain to detect the chemical. An artificial nose has a collection of relatively nonspecific sensors and uses computer software to detect the specific pattern characteristic of a particular chemical.
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Artificial recombination Refers to DNA ligation in vitro using purified enzymes and substrates.
Artificial selection The practice of selecting individuals from a population for reproduction, because they possess one or more desirable traits.
Artificial sweeteners Substances that make foods sweeter without increasing the calorific value. These include thaumatin, a protein produced by Thaumatococcus denielli which is 3000 times sweeter than sugar, and aspartame (Nutrasweet), a dipeptide (aspartate-phenylalanine-methyl) the most commonly used artificial sweetener. Thaumatins have been produced in E.coli and S. cerevisiae by genetic engineering methods. Aspartame can be synthesised by proteases.
Artificial tissues Tissues that can be built from the relevant cells, isolated, multiplied in vitro and then reintroduced into the body in a functional form that will not be destroyed. Examples of artificial tissues include bone marrow, artificial blood or blood substitutes and skin substitutes.
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ASA See allele-specific amplification.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A code that uses single bytes for presenting characters. Codes 0 to 127 (in decimal) are used for the Latin alphabet, Arabic numerals, punctuation etc. ASCII codes below 32 (in decimal) are not usually printable on most computers and represent codes for terminal input, cursor and printer control.
ascites Accumulation of serous fluid in the abdominal cavity. This is used, as a method for propagating hybridoma cells for monoclonal antibody formation.
Ascomycetes A class of fungi that is characterised by a structure, the ascus.
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Ascorbic acid; Vitamin C (C6H8O6; f.w. 176.12). A water soluble vitamin present in citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, gooseberry, etc. It has multiple biological functions including wound healing as well as antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties. Besides its role as a vitamin, it is used as an antioxidant in plant tissue culture; and included in disinfection solution. In mammalian systems, the antioxidant functions of ascorbic acid influence many biochemical processes. It maintains glutathione in the reduced state and is responsible for the regeneration of a-tocopherol. IT is a scavenger of free radicals and a powerful quencher of singlet oxygen. It scavenges a wide range of oxidants including O2, H2O2, OH, aqueous peroxy radicals, sulphenyl radicals and singlet oxygen.
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Ascorbic Acid
Ascospore One of the spores present in the ascus of certain fungi.
Ascus Containing a tetrad or an octad of (haploid) spores in a fungus that represents the produces of a single meiosis.
artificial chromosomes DNA constructs composed of elements such as a replication origin, telomere and centromere, that are required for successful replication, propagation to and maintenance in progeny cells. In addition, artificial chromosomes carry other sequences for analysis or gene transfer.
Artificial inembryonation Non-surgical transfer of embryo(s) to a recipient female.
Aseptic The state of being free from contaminating organism such as bacteria, fungi, algae and all microorganism except viruses.
Asexual embryogenesis The sequence of events by which embryos develop from somatic cells.
Asexual reproduction Reproduction that occurs without involvement of gametes from the different sexes or mating types. It occurs in microorganism, plants and lower animals.
ASK-1 Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1, also known as MEKK5 or MAPKKK5, that induces apoptosis.
ASO probe (Allele Specific Oligo) An oligo designed in such a way that it allows/inhibits hybridisation in the position where the mutant (resistar) allele differs from the wild type (susceptible) allele.
Asparagine (asn) One of the 20 amino acids that is incorporated into protein structure. It is sometimes included in plant tissue culture media as a source of reduced nitrogen.
Aspartame An artificial sweetener that uses the amino acid phenylalanine as a precursor.
Aspartate transaminase (AST) Formerly known as glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT). An enzyme that catalyses the transfer of amino groups of aspartate to 2-oxoglutarate to form glutamate and oxaloacetate. High concentration of AST is present in the heart, skeletal muscle, liver, kidney and erythrocytes. The enzyme is present in both mitochondria and cytosol. Due to its high concentration in the cardiac muscle, plasma AST levels increase following myocardial infarction. AST levels are increased in skeletal muscle disease. AST is also a sensitive marker of liver disease.
Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) An enzyme which catalyses the first step in pyrimidine biosynthesis. It is classic example of an allosteric enzyme.
Aspartic acid (aspartate, asp) An amino acid necessary for nucleotide synthesis. It is included in plant tissue culture media.Aspergillus A genus of economically important fungi that are used in a number of industrial fermentations.
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