This platform game will guide you through the universe of the human genome and its variations!
Why are we all different? From the colour of our skin to intolerance to lactose or predisposition to a disease, you will quickly understand that our genes and their variations (variants) hold part of the answer…
• Dive into the heart of a human cell – in its nucleus – to take part in the fascinating process of transcription, by which the information contained in our genes is converted into proteins, which are essential for all biological processes in our body.
• Gene after gene, discover all the avatars and associated variants, and get the best score!
o To discover new avatars, each representing a population from all over the world, run along their genes and jump to retrieve the variants associated with them (e.g. the variant associated with skin colour in the SLC24A5 gene).
o See how your avatar changes its characteristics (phenotype) according to the genetic variation collected.
o You will be running along the coding part of genes (exon) – but beware of the non-coding areas (introns)! Jump over them or ride specific proteins that will take you safely to the next exon.
o Avoid the obstacles created by the secondary structures of the gene sequence along the way if you don’t want to be electrocuted!
o Playing the game is very easy to start with… but will you be able to keep up with the increasing difficulty of each level?
Each avatar in the game has three different genes that influence its phenotype. In real life however, we have over 20’000 genes with millions of different variants, which, together with environmental factors, establish the unique phenotype of each person.
An illustrated glossary provides you with useful explanations on the different types of strange molecules that you will encounter: chromosomes, DNA, RNA, genes, proteins, amino acids, nucleotides, introns, exons, spliceosome and the principle of splicing.
Note that this game is open source. If you would like to contribute and help with translating in another language, dont hesitate to get in touch with us [email protected]
While playing, if you find a bug or typo, please let us know.