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Best practice when talking about a genome

Hello,

I'm wondering what people usually think behind the term "genome" ? Is it only the ""nucleome"", i.e only the nuclear genome or it takes into account all the organelles like mitochondrion, cholorplast, etc.

Actually we would like to publish a new genome, but I don't know if I have to include the organelle genes into my gene count. What will be the best way to present the thing in your opinion ?

If I say something like "We found XXX genes in the genome of species A ", would people think by default that all organelles genes are included too ? or the opposite ? I have the impression it is really fuzzy in general...

Your comments are most welcome...

Cheers

genome
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updated by TriS TriS • written by Juke34 Juke34

Few days back I came across this. Just in case if it helps

enter image description here

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written by venu venu

1 answer

short answer: include it.

genome refers to the collection of all genes/genetic info in an organism, no matter if it comes from within or outside the nucleus. a simple example is mitochondrial DNA. it is included in the human reference genome and it is annotated as M/MT. I would include it and make sure that the annotation is properly made to address this "issue".

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written by TriS TriS

That seems clear enough. It's what I thought but I didn't remember any clear statement about it. Thank a lot

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written by Juke34 Juke34

Maybe in some symbiosis organismes with many organelles/plasmid around it would be trickier to decide what to separate/include...

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written by Juke34 Juke34

Symbiotic organisms would represent two distinct genomic entities so would need to be described as separate genomes (with some additional metadata if one can't independently survive without the other).

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written by GenoMax GenoMax

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