Comparative genomics
Comparative genomics is the study of relationships between the genomes of different species or strains. Comparative genomics is an attempt to take advantage of the information provided by the signatures of selection to understand the function and evolutionary processes that act on genomes. While it is still a young field, it holds great promise to yield insights into many aspects of the evolution of modern species. The sheer amount of information contained in modern genomes (several gigabytes in the case of humans) necessitates that the methods of comparative genomics are mostly computational in nature. Gene finding is an important application of comparative genomics, as is discovery of new, non-coding functional elements of the genome.
I have done quite a lot of research in this field.
Subspecies
- subspecies (ssp. / subsp.)
- the rank immediately subordinate to a species. It is equivalent to "race" in the biological sense.
Strain
Microbiology / Virology
A strain is a genetic variant or subtype of a virus, bacterium, or archaean. For example, a "flu strain" is a certain biological form of the influenza or "flu" virus.
- biovar (bv.)
- a variant prokaryotic strain that differs physiologically and/or biochemically from other strains in a particular species.
- morphovar
- those strains that differ physiologically.
- serovar / serotype
- those strains that have antigenic properties that differ from other strains.
Plants
A strain is a group of plants with similar (but not identical) appearance and/or properties. The term has no official status.
- cultivar
- a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species. When propagated it retains those characteristics.
Rodents
A mouse or a rat strain is a group of animals that are genetically uniform. Strains are used in laboratory experiments. Mouse strains can be inbred, mutated, or genetically engineered, while rat strains are usually inbred.
