Showing posts with label genome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genome. Show all posts

Much to Learn About the Human Genome

It was thought that once the human genome was known "interpreting" how things work would be easy. However, this is not the case. The hereditary sequencing in our genes is not the only factor determining what we are and what we do. Only 3 per cent of human genes are actually involved in the "code". Little is known about what the rest do.

It has been discovered recently that these "dumb" genes turn the letter genes on and off. They determine whether a cell becomes a brain or kidney cell, for example. There are 3 billion base gene structures, so there is a long way to go in understanding basic functions. At any one time 80 per cent of genes are active. Some are triggered by proteins. Others change into RNA that regulate letter genes.

In regard to understanding human health, many bases just keep chromosomes quiet. A complicating factor is that genes overlap and have many end points - not singular. Over 4 million gene triggers have be found and they are not all located near their target letter gene. The next step is to find out which base changes affect susceptibility to arthritis, diabetes and so on.
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Dogs Taking Life Easy

"I reckon we should take life real easy."
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Elephants and Mammoths Have Much the Same DNA

Elephants aren't so different from woolly mammoths. DNA samples taken from mammoth hair shows they are much alike. Furthermore, there are indications that the mammoth population was so low toward the end that inbreeding took place.

If the unique mammoth genome can be isolated it can be inserted into elephant DNA to produce a woolly mammoth. It has also been found that differentiation between mammoth was only minor, so that a disease could have easily wiped them out.

Mammoth are more closely related to elephants than chimpanzees are to humans, which is about 99 percent. Evidence shows that there were two groups of mammoth. One group died out 45,000 years ago, the other 10,000 years ago.
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Science