MAN HANDS!!!
Posted on 01/29/2007 8:08:24 AM PST by presidio9
Abraham Lincoln may have suffered from a genetic disorder that literally shattered his nerves, a new study on worms suggests.
Many of the president's descendants have a gene mutation that affects the part of the brain controlling movement and coordination, researchers discovered last year. The mutation prevents nerve cells from "communicating" with each other properly, but scientists weren't sure exactly how or why.
The malformed protein could actually be causing nerve cells to break altogether, show the experiments announced today by scientists at the University of Utah.
If Honest Abe had the disease, it would explain the gangly walk for which he was famous, they said.
Humans produce four protein genes called beta spectrin, which help our cells regulate walking and talking and anything else requiring movement. Normally, wire-like axons that connect each nerve cell flex and bend when we do.
The mutation of one of the beta spectrin genes causes the degenerative nerve disorder spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5), which researchers at the University of Minnesota found in 90 out of 299 of Lincoln's living descendants in a 2006 test. Those afflicted with ataxia lose coordination and sometimes end up confined to a wheelchair.
Until now, most scientists thought ataxia occurred because nerve cells didn't have beta spectrin linking them together with the same strength they do in a healthy individual.
Nematode worms also produce beta spectrin. When researchers removed the beta spectrin gene from worms, however, the worms' wiry cell axons didn't just malfunction—they severed.
The very same thing could be happening in humans, the University of Utah biologists speculate.
"It's incredible and so very simple that this one protein is what keeps neurons from breaking in your body," said study author Michael Bastiani, of the University of Utah's Brain Institute. "The entire functioning of the nervous system depends on these wire-like axons between nerve cells."
The whisper-thin axon is the least complex part of a nerve cell, Bastiani explained, so scientists often have looked elsewhere when searching for the cause of nervous disorders such as ataxia.
Lincoln's trademark lumbering and awkward gait—noted by several historians of his time—would have been a symptom of ataxia, said the University of Minnesota researchers, whose hereditary study pegged his chances of having the disease at about one-in-four.
If he did suffer from ataxia, it was probably in its early stages by the time he was assassinated at age 56 in 1865, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute.
Most nerve cells in the worms studied weren't broken in the embryonic stage, despite the lack of beta spectrin, but began snapping as the worms grew larger. Beta spectrin is only necessary to prevent breakage in mature cells and not to create new ones, the study showed.
Since it is continuous movement over time that causes axons to shatter, without the protective coating of the protein Lincoln's unsteady and irregular way of getting around would probably have gotten much worse had he lived into old age.
The wayward beta spectrin gene could be the culprit in many other neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer's, the researchers said, though further testing is needed.
The study's full findings are published in the most recent edition of The Journal of Cell Biology.
HUH? Lincoln does not have any living descendants, does he? He had one grandchild, but the grandchild didn't have children.
I wish they'd let old Abe rest in peace...first he had homosexual tendencies...then it was possibly Marfan's Syndrome responsible for his height and large hands. Now his gait is being examined. How can they speculate without having his DNA to test?
DisHonest Abe
University of Minnesota thinks he has 299 living descendants.
I don't know, personally. Didn't he have some siblings, though? "Descendants" would include nieces/nephews and all their progeny.
There is a story that Lincoln travelled into Virginia near the end of the war to visit General Grant. After disembarking the boat he was provided with a horse. No horseman was Honest Abe. He provided quite an amusing sight for all who saw this. With stovepipe hat firmly in place, his feet hung almost to the ground with his pants pulled so high that the men could see the bare skin of his legs. It must have been a sight to behold.
Correction: Lincoln had several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but none of the great grandchildren had children. Who are the descendants referred to here? Descendants of cousins, e.g.?
Hey, nix that gene mutation stuff. Ya' want to turn this into a crevo thread?
I don't know about this new report, but it is pretty well documented that Lincoln suffered from bipolar disorder, even seeking medical treatment for it on several occasions. Lee, Hamilton and both Roosevelts were also manic depressives.
>>>HUH? Lincoln does not have any living descendants, does he? He had one grandchild, but the grandchild didn't have children.>>>
That was my first thought too! I didn't think he had any descendants.
The story says that the complete study is in the "Journal of Cell Biology," but the journal's website isn't updated yet. I'd be interested to know what relatives they used for the study.
Offspring of his cousins or siblings wouldn't be his "descendants," technically, but one can't expect precise accuracy from the MSM.
Lateral descendents come from siblings, not direct descendents. Any credible publication should make that distinction. It was also my understanding that Lincoln does not have living direct descendents. And 299 "lateral descendents" is a very small number, actually.
Another story I have seen from two references. Lincoln was with cabinet members, sailors and some Generals on a boat during a reconnaissance operation. During a light-hearted moment after dinner, Lincoln claimed he was as strong as a bear and proceeded to demonstrate it by holding an axe straight out at arm's length for several minutes. No one else on board could do it.
You are partially right.
Of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's four children, only Robert Todd Lincoln reached adulthood. Robert and his wife Mary had three children, Mary, Abraham and Jessie.Mary married Charles Isham, and they had a single child, Lincoln Isham. Lincoln Isham married, but had no children. Lincoln Isham, Abraham Lincoln's great grandson died in 1971.
Abraham "Jack" Lincoln II had no children.
Jessie Harlan Lincoln married Warren Beckwith in 1897. They had two children, both of whom were Abraham Lincoln's great-grandchildren: Mary Lincoln Beckwith and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. Neither had children of their own. Mary Beckwith died in 1975. Robert Beckwith, the last living descendant of Abraham Lincoln, died on December 24, 1985.
I haven't got a clue who the 299 Lincoln "descendants" are in the study described in the article.
And 299 "lateral descendents" is a very small number, actually.
If they had a genetic defect of the nervous system, maybe that cut down the number of surviving offspring for the whole extended clan.
This is from Live Science, not Yahoo News. I have never seen anything the posted disputed. They even tend to steer clear of "Global Warming" stories
True, it might, but that's still a very small number. I have one set of ancestors who had more than that many descendents by the time they died.
MAN HANDS!!!
ping
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