Submitted by tanteidaiko t3_zdpa6g in askscience
Bitchwar t1_iz3wh34 wrote
Reply to comment by feliciates in What are Serotypes? Are they a kind of Phenotype / Genotype? by tanteidaiko
But a phenotype can be slightly different than the genotype, right? I mean depending on epigenetic factors and environmental factors.. Or am mistaken here?
MotsPassant t1_iz44ff9 wrote
You can't compare phenotype and genotype in this manner. Just like you can't play an instrument you don't have, you can't express genes that aren't in your genotype. Epigenetics will basically modify what genes are expressed. It will get you from phenotype A to phenotype B if you will, but saying it is "different from your genotype" doesn't make sense. All your possible phenotypes are contained in your genotype.
tanteidaiko OP t1_iz3zh1u wrote
I think this the interesting and crucial point. Are serotypes mainly influenced by genotypes or are there epigenetic factors at play also.
I have done many Dengue E1 Sequencing and I frequently BLAST the sequences. We do see that these sequences can be catergorised into the serotypes themselves. So does mean that the sequences, and therefore genotype, confers the serotypes?
Bitchwar t1_iz42itz wrote
Not familiar with the lingo. Blast, is that a method in itself?
Maybe I can ask a couple of questions if you have the time: Are you sequencing serotype, transcriptomics and DNA of white blood cells that are infected? And can you predict serotype from DNA? Or only from transcriptomics?
tanteidaiko OP t1_iz42y1y wrote
BLAST is an online sequence alignment tool by NCBI.
I am sequencing the genome of the Dengue virus itself that we extract from an infected person. And we are able to determine the serotype affecting a person via real time PCR itself. So we draw the patient's blood, spin it down into serums, then we do nucleic acid extraction to obtain the RNA. Then we do real time RT-PCR to detect the presence of any sereotype of the virus.
feliciates t1_iz4hxej wrote
That's a very good question. Back when I was in the lab, serotypes couldn't be distinguished by sequencing but we seem to have moved towards being able to do that and the serotypes of strep have evidence for having a genetic basis:
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