In molecular biology, and more importantly high-throughput DNA sequencing, a chimera is a single DNA sequence originating when multiple transcripts or DNA sequences get joined. Chimeras can be considered artifacts and be filtered out from the data during processing [1] to prevent spurious inferences of biological variation.[2] However, chimeras should not be confused with chimeric reads, who are generally used by structural variant callers to detect structural variation events[3] and are not always an indication of the presence of a chimeric transcript or gene.
In a different context, the deliberate creation of artificial chimeras can also be a useful tool in molecular biology. For example, in protein engineering, "chimeragenesis" (forming chimeras between proteins that are encoded by homologous cDNAs)[4] is one of the "two major techniques used to manipulate cDNA sequences".[4] For gene fusions that occur through natural processes, see chimeric genes and fusion genes.
- ^ "Chimeras". www.drive5.com. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
- ^ Edgar, Robert C. (2016-09-12). "UCHIME2: improved chimera prediction for amplicon sequencing". BioRXiv. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: 074252. doi:10.1101/074252. S2CID 88955007.
- ^ Kosugi, Shunichi; Momozawa, Yukihide; Liu, Xiaoxi; Terao, Chikashi; Kubo, Michiaki; Kamatani, Yoichiro (December 2019). "Comprehensive evaluation of structural variation detection algorithms for whole genome sequencing". Genome Biology. 20 (1): 117. doi:10.1186/s13059-019-1720-5. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 6547561. PMID 31159850.
- ^ a b Lajtha A, Reith ME (2007). Handbook of Neurochemistry and Molecular Neurobiology Neural Membranes and Transport. Boston, MA: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. p. 485. ISBN 978-0-387-30347-5. p. 424