[Ellendra]

Am I the only one who gets creeped out by the idea of some scientist tinkering with my genes?

[John123]

Now scientists say there's a junk gene that fights HIV. And they've discovered how to turn it back on.

Is this on the level... or are these the same guys that believe global warming is imminent?

[benjibrowder]

The team found a way to use a compound called aminoglycosides, which itself can cause errors when RNA transcribes information from DNA to make proteins.

I'm curious as to what kind of side effects result in this.

[concerned about politics]

They have re-awakened the human genome's latent potential to make us all into HIV-resistant creatures.

Thanks, but no thanks. Give it to the homosexuals. What have they got to lose?

[Paul Heinzman]

At last, they knew that if they could just figure out a way to reawaken the "junk" gene that creates retrocyclin in humans, they might be able to stop HIV infections.

But if they do it wrong you'll just grow a tail instead.

[70th Division]

I have some acient human jeans hanging in my closet.

[nomad]

And where are the raving “Franken Foods”lefties now?ARE THESE PEOPLE FREEKING KIDDING!There`s “serious doubt” about the safety of modifying food genomes and yet people are cool with this?And all because a bunch of queers can`t accept that its an exit,not an entrance!Or at least use decent rubbers.

[SunkenCiv]

Those of you who read Greg Bear's novel Darwin's Radio know that this scenario is familiar scifi territory: In that book, humans start rapidly evolving after their junk DNA re-awakens in response to stress.

That idea also provided the basis for the worst or second-worst episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	"Fred Sanford" ping. "Junk DNA" are inactive parts of your genome... Old World monkeys had a built-in immunity to HIV: a protein called retrocyclin, which can prevent HIV from entering cell walls and starting an infection. So they began poring over the human genome, looking to see if humans had a latent gene that could manufacture retrocyclin too. It turned out that we did, but a "nonsense mutation" in the gene had turned it off... Nonsense mutations are caused when random DNA code shows up in the middle of a gene, preventing it from beginning the process of manufacturing proteins in the cell. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[bert]

.....And they’ve discovered how to turn it back on. .......

Turning on the antiHIV gene turns off the queer gene