Gene Separates Early Humans from Apes

Reuters Science via Yahoo ^ | 8-26-02 | Maggie Fox

[gore3000]

That may well be true too, but that is different than saying the fugu is more closely related to Man than is the mouse.

Trying to pull a fast one there Jenny! The statement was in regards to your reference to the rabbit being 33% different from man. Actually the fugu genes have helped us identify some 1,000 human genes which other research (including the genome project) had not found. Regardless though, the point is that gene comparisons are insufficient to determine much at all. The other factors within the 'junk' DNA are much more important and we are just beginning to learn about them.

[Heartlander]

I checked out your website… Thought you might want to add these music selections. (LOL)
(The Bossa nova Remix)

(Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Aqualung
Folsom Prison Blues

Seriously though, if you are a fan of Roy Orbison, I recommend his Black and White DVD.

[jennyp]

Gene comparisons are important to determine how many mutations it took to get from living species B back to ancestor A & back forward to living species C. I'm sure the total genetic distance between humans & fugu fish are very long. Again: The fact that there are many genes in our 2 species that are "counterparts" of the other's, is not the same as them being the same.

[jennyp]

Oh, God. That page's a keeper!

[gore3000]

Gene comparisons are important to determine how many mutations it took to get from living species B back to ancestor A & back forward to living species C.

That's the point, it is not. The complexity of an organism in no way depends on the number of genes. Neither do its abilities. If the fugu's genes were not quite alike to a human's we would not have been able to use the genome of the fugu fish to discover genes which had not been found by the smartest scientists we have or by the best equipment we have when we did the genome project. Sure, man is very different from the fugu fish, but the difference is not in the genes. Man's intelligence as opposed to that of monkeys is not in the genes either, it is in the expression of certain genes. It is the other DNA, the one we do not understand comletely, the DNA evolutionists call junk, that allows us to make 100,000 proteins with only 30,000 genes. It is that DNA, not the genes that makes us what we are.

[Nebullis]

A new function for Alu sequences is published in this weeks Nature.

Essential cell division 'zipper' anchors to so-called junk DNA

[AndrewC]

A new function for Alu sequences is published in this weeks Nature.

Egad! Junk is not "junk". Who'da thought? A "histone code"? But of course, I approach this announcement with an open mind; I study it carefully; and I critically consider it. Further, since it is just a hypothesis, I don't expect to see it in schoolbooks.

[Nebullis]

"Junk is the ideal product ... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy."
--William Burroughs The Naked Lunch

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 8/26/2002. Thanks Pharmboy. Just adding, not pinging.