"Oligos", oligo- & poly-
If someone refers to "an oligo" they're usually talking about an oligonucleotide (a short nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) chain), most often a primer! (a DNA oligo we use to tell DNA Polymerase where to start copying template DNA in a technique called PCR). But “oligo” as a prefix just means “few” or little - so you’ll see it other places as well!
blog: https://bit.ly/oligomeaning
for example…
oligopeptide: short chain of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins)
oligosaccharide: short sugar chains such as the glycans attached to some proteins and lipids
protein oligomer: multiple copies of proteins stuck together
The sort of “opposite” of oligo is poly, which means many. And you see it used poly a place in biochemistry!
for example:
polymer (a long chain of linked-together monomers):
such as a polypeptide (long chain of amino acids (a protein)) or
polysaccharide (long sugar chain like starch or glycogen)
we could call DNA and RNA polynucleotides, but people don’t often use that term - instead they just say “DNA” or “RNA” or “nucleic acids”
polymerize: the act of piecing together those monomers
such as DNA polymerase piecing together those deoxynucleotides in your PCR reaction!
some forms of polymerization can be induced chemically without requiring enzymes, such as the polymerization of acrylamide into polyacrylamide to form PAGE gels
polyclonal: used to describe a mix of antibodies (as opposed to monoclonal which only has a single type) http://bit.ly/antibodytypesanduses & • Lab antibody considerations - monoclo...
polysome: mRNA with multiple ribosomes translating along it at the same time: https://bit.ly/polysomeprofiling
Even within the use of “oligo” to refer to oligonucleotides, there can be a wide range of uses, not “just” PCR - there are also antisense oligonucleotides, oligonucleotide probes, etc. etc. etc… They’re typically chemically synthesized using a solid state method and, at least the DNA ones, are pretty cheap - one of the cheapest things you’ll buy in science! Which is good because we often order lots and lots because we do lots and lots of PCR!
Speaking of which, be sure to organize them all - both physically and on your computer - I keep a spreadsheet “inventory” on all my primer sequences, names, & uses
More on how they’re synthesized: http://bit.ly/solidstateoligo
Some tips for resuspending, diluting, & working with them : blog: https://bit.ly/oligo_working ; YouTube: • Resuspending, diluting, & working wit...
more on antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs): https://bit.ly/ASO_biochemistry & • ASOs - AntiSense Oligonucleotides: wh...
more on biochemistry word parts: a non-exhaustive list of some key prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc. you may see (some lots!) View and download here: https://bit.ly/biochemistry_word_parts
blog form: https://bit.ly/biochemwordparts ; YouTube: • Biochemistry & biology word parts: ke...
more on PCR: http://bit.ly/pcrtrain & • PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) - a c...
more on glycobiology (sugar science): https://bit.ly/sugarssci & • Glycobiology - an overview of sugar b...
more terminology: http://bit.ly/bumblingbiochemistglossary & https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
more about all sorts of things: #365DaysOfScience All (with topics listed) 👉 http://bit.ly/2OllAB0 or search blog: http://thebumblingbiochemist.com
#scicomm #biochemistry #molecularbiology #biology #sciencelife #science #realtimechem
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