What type of biotechnology is the human genome?

Question

I needa do a summer project about how any one type of biotechnology works based on an article found in a magazine.

Found an article of the human genome and was wondering what type of biotechnology it is.

Kinda new in the biotech stuff, never really studied it

Answer 1

What Drew said - the Human Genome Project was a feat of genomic DNA sequencing.

The actual human genome is what you find inside people; that's not biotechnology, that's just life.

Answer 2

Yea the technology is DNA sequencing, genome assembly, and genome annotation.  So basically they have things called contigs, which are pieces of the genome, and they sequence each one and then assemble them into the order they occur in the genome.  Then they annotate.  This involves using computer software to predict which pieces of sequence are genes and which are not, and what the genes might be.  They will also compare possible genes with those of other organisms to perhaps find homologs etc.  If you were going to study a biological technique perhaps just look at sequencing and don't worry about the assembly and annotation, the whole process is quite complex.

Yes contigs are an example of 'recombinant DNA technology'. They are put in vectors (circular pieces of DNA). Libraries are made of them in other organisms, like bacteria (e.g. E. coli) or yeast.

Genomics is a collective term for a group of bio-techniques which includes those I've listed, though not really annotation, that's done by computer.  Recombinant DNA technology is not a specific biotechnology itself, it uses multiple bio-techniques.

You could do a project on the 'genomics' of the human genome project though, depends what the specifics of the assignment are. There are many online resources about it. Just make sure you use reliable sources of info (i.e. not Wikipedia, it is not necessarily wrong info, but is not guaranteed accurate.

Some other technologies that apply are:

Restriction enzyme digestion

Transformation of cells (bacteria or yeast)

DNA sequencing

Contig alignment

then there is the annotation

Sorry this is so long but it is a hard thing to explain!  Hope your assignment goes well :)

Answer 3

Studying it is an area known as Genomics.  It was sequenced using recombinant DNA technology.  

Answer 4

The human genome is the genes in human DNA and mapping what each one of them does and ignoring the ones that don't do anything. This was called the human genome project and several labs competed to complete the mapping first. The biotechnology would be the method by which the human genome was mapped, not the genome itself.  

Answer 5

genetic engineering.. DNA recombination technology