Tag Archives: Genetics

More “Junk” DNA is Not

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Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchSome of the base pairs in a given genome are strung together into templates that code for proteins or RNA molecules. These are the classic “genes.” Other base pairs probably have little or no function. Among the DNA that is not in classic gene-templates, however, there is a lot of important information, including “control regions.”

How much of each “type” of DNA exists in a particular genome varies. A recent study suggests that the currently used methods for scanning DNA for regulatory sequences may systematically m miss more than half of that information.

Continue reading More “Junk” DNA is Not →

Human Evolutionary Rate Study

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There seems to be some interesting things going on with the recently reported study of rates of evolution in humans. We are getting reports of a wide range of rather startling conclusions being touted by the researchers who wrote this paper. These conclusions typically come from press releases, and then are regurgitated by press outlets, then read and reported by bloggers, and so on. Here is, in toto, the press release from the University of Wisconsin, where John Hawks, one of the authors of the study, works. I reproduce the press release here without further comment. Continue reading Human Evolutionary Rate Study →

Study Suggests Increased Rate of Human Adaptive Evolution

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There is a new paper, just coming out in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that explores the idea that humans have undergone an increased rate of evolution over the last several tens of thousands of years. Continue reading Study Suggests Increased Rate of Human Adaptive Evolution →

Origin of Native America

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Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchThe origin and early history of Native American people has always been an issue of debate and contention. There has never been a moment when all, or even most, interested parties agreed on anything close to a single story. New research published in the Open-Access journal PLoS Genetics tends to support a very traditional (among archaeologists) view of a single relatively simple migration from Siberia across the New World, more or less from north to south. Continue reading Origin of Native America →

Get Your Own Genome Sequenced

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Today, deCODE genetics announced the launch of their consumer genotyping service, deCODEme. deCODEme is the first personal genomics company to launch, and will provide sequencing information about 1 million SNPs for the introductory price of $985. The service has two components:[source]

From deCODEme (Man, I’m siCK of these miXEDcase companynames.):

“Through your subscription to deCODEme, you can learn what your DNA says about your ancestry, your body -traits such as hair and eye color- as well as whether you may have genetic variants that have been associated with higher or lower than average risk of a range of common diseases. This information will be continually updated as new discoveries are made.”

Cool. They’ll tell you what color eyes you have and everything.See the decode.com webcast. They are very professional looking, I must say. But I could only get through the first two minutes, so don’t take my word for it.

Giardia: Protozoan of never ending wonders

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i-e499dbe326e9df357fe96d52516a27ca-giardia.gif… well, OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration.You know about giardia. Giardia intestinalis. It causes a nasty gut infection, and you get it by drinking water pretty much anywhere in the US (potentially). It is very hard to get rid of.Giardia adapt to immune system attacks (of their host) in a way that passes that adaptation down to their offspring without genes. It is a Lamarkian process. Giardia have no mitochondria, yet many of the genes known to be in mitochondria in eukaryotes are found in the giardian nucleus. So, ancestral giardia probably had mitochondria, but all those genes got transferred over to the nucleus.The absence of mitochondria and the significant reduction of some other organelles has led people to, probably falsely, believe that giardia is some kind of intermediate between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Again, this is probably a misinterpretation. Giardia, as a eukaryote which has lost specific organelles (yet still does just fine) would be in a sense “more evolved” than any eukaryote. Including, dear reader, you.And now, there is even a newer twist to the story. Continue reading Giardia: Protozoan of never ending wonders →

YA Genome: Fruit Flies

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I’m sure you’ ve heard, but in case not: Not one, not two, not even three, but TEN new genomes were just released, bringing the total for fruit fly genomes to twelve species.These fruit flies diverged several tens of millions of years ago, which in the large picture, is kinda recent. This will allow a useful meso-time scale comparative study across diverging genomes trapped in somewhat less divergent phenotypes.We are now starting to see patterning in the fundamental nature of selection For instance, it is now possible to begin to estimate the relative rate of genetic change at the base-pair level that is accounted for by different kinds of selective forces, such as sexual selection, selection on the immune system, and so on, and to place this in the broader context of neutral process.A good place to start reading about this is here, at Nature News.