Posted on 09/06/2008 1:48:05 PM PDT by neverdem
Genes alone dont make the man after all, humans and chimps share roughly 98 percent of their DNA. But where, when and how much genes are turned on may be essential in setting people apart from other primates.
A stretch of human DNA inserted into mice embryos revs the activity of genes in the developing thumb, toe, forelimb and hind limb. But the chimp and rhesus macaque version of this same stretch of DNA spurs only faint activity in the developing limbs, reports a new study in the Sept. 5 Science.
The research supports the notion that changes in the regulation of genes rather than changes in the genes themselves were crucial evolutionary steps in the human ability to use fire, invent wheels and ponder existential questions, like what distinguishes people from our primate cousins.
Were trying to find out what makes us human, says geneticist James Noonan of Yale University, who led the study with colleagues from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Genome Institute of Singapore and the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom. We know that the things that make us human biologically are encoded in there somewhere.
Noonan and colleagues combed through the vast regions of human DNA that do not contain code for making proteins. Formerly dissed as junk DNA, sections of these non-gene regions are now known to play a regulatory role, dialing down or cranking up the activity of actual genes.
Like electrical wiring in a house, genes may be turned on in many places at once, even though they might only be needed in one area, such as the eye, comments Francesca Mariani of the Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California,. So while the new study cant say...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Noonan and colleagues combed through the vast regions of human DNA that do not contain code for making proteins. Formerly dissed as junk DNA, sections of these non-gene regions are now known to play a regulatory role, dialing down or cranking up the activity of actual genes.Dissed as junk DNA because they didn't understand it's function, not because it didn't have one. Bravo for these researchers who are actully trying to do some REAL science!
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Note: this topic is from 9/06/2008. Thanks neverdem. |
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