The Genome (AQA AS Biology): Revision Note

The genome & proteome

Genome

• A genome is the complete set of genes present in a cell

• The full genome is present within every cell of an organism, but not every gene is expressed in every cell; the genes that are expressed depend on the cell type

Proteome

• The proteome is the full range of proteins that a cell can produce

• The proteome is usually larger than the genome of an organism

  • This is due to the large amount of post-translational modification of proteins (often in the Golgi apparatus)

  • Each gene is also capable of producing multiple different proteins via alternative splicing