Expression analysis

Professor Allen Moore explains that expression analysis allows researchers to study what it is that the gene is making.

Genetics works by, you have a gene, the gene then is expressed and makes a protein. The protein then comes together to make traits. So when we are looking at traits, depending on the trait we are looking at, it may be quite a bit removed from the gene itself. So what we really need to know is what the gene is making. The other problem is that genes make proteins, but the gene may be used in different ways so you put together proteins in different ways, maybe splice that is pieces of gene maybe expressed differently at different times. So expression studies are asking really what is happening at the level of the gene what is being made, what is the product. It’s very nice because you can ask questions like if I have two different subjects, and one is doing one thing and the other is not you could ask, 'what genes are being expressed that are different between those two?' So expression studies ask what RNA’s being made and then from that RNA what protein is going to be made?