Genetics & Molecular Biology

As a brief follow up to the post about Dr. Andras Pellionisz's Google seminar, I cannot help but quote from his website: Since a US Government-mandated (and taxpayer paid) 4-year study (ENCODE, led by Dr. Collins) established the scientific fact that (at the least a significant part of) formerly "written off" so-called "non-coding DNA" is massively involved in genome function, US government-supported professionals who after the release of ENCODE (reversal of the Establishment in 2007) neglect to to follow Dr. Collins' mandate that "the scientific community will have to re-think long-held…

I had lunch today with Jim Anderson, a Professor in the Department of Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Toronto.  Jim asks questions about how genetic changes over time (evolution) leads to the generation of new species (speciation).  Jim's way of asking questions is by watching the generation of new species in the lab. A little background:One theory of speciation starts with a single interbreeding population becoming split in two.  Over time, while the two groups are isolated, they develop a genetic incompatibility.  This incompatibility means that the two…

Those of you who read Genomicon v1 or other blogs that discuss non-coding DNA will, for better or worse, be familiar with regular commenter Andras Pellionisz. Many people have concluded that Dr. Pellionisz is essentially a "crank", though I believe I have tried to give him a fair hearing on the blog (before asking him to stop repeating the same arguments over and over). Whether he has managed to convince anyone of his view that all non-coding DNA is functional is another issue, however. Readers should judge this for themselves. Thus, here are links to his website, a recent article, and a…

If you're looking for genome news, the Nov. 6 issue of Nature is chock full. A news feature (subscription only) goes after why genome-wide association studies are failing to find genetic variants that explain obviously heritable traits like height or autism: But between those variants that stick out like a sore thumb, and those common enough to be dredged up by the wide net of GWAS, there is a potential middle ground of variants that are moderately penetrant but are rare enough that they are missed by the net. There's also the possibility that there are many more-frequent variants that have…

Researchers have carried out the largest study of differences between human and chimpanzee genomes, identifying regions that have been duplicated or lost during evolution of the two lineages. The study, published in Genome Research, is the first to compare many human and chimpanzee genomes in the same fashion. The team show that particular types of genes - such as those involved in the inflammatory response and in control of cell proliferation - are more commonly involved in gain or loss. They also provide new evidence for a gene that has been associated with susceptibility to infection by…

Which species is more diverse, humans or chimps? Most of us would be tempted to answer 'humans'. Unless you're a primatologist or you work at a zoo, you would likely have trouble telling one chimp apart from another, not to mention distinguishing between West African and Central African chimpanzees. By contrast, we can easily spot differences among humans - if asked to guess whether someone was from China, Pakistan, or Kenya, few of us would have any trouble getting the answer correct. By the measure of genes though, humans are amazingly uniform. Humans are genetically less diverse than…

Transcription factors do a lot of things for us, like make arms and legs in the right places.  It turns out they may also make us go bald. We all know that being bald runs in families.  Both my Dad and I are bald, as are five of my eight uncles and both Grandfathers.  Based on twin studies, the heritability of male pattern baldness is 81% .  This means that if your father or uncle is bald, you have a pretty good chance of going bald, too.   Even though the presence of a genetic component to baldness seems obvious, until this decade nobody had any idea what…

Any time science  terms become colloquial, it leads to problems.    How often does someone make a speculation and call it a 'theory'?   Cars supposedly 'evolve' if their advertising is true.    And 'junk DNA' means 'useless' if you ask many outside biology.    But 'junk' DNA does not mean 'no value' and a new paper published in Genome Research on Nov. 4 reaffirm that.  Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) report that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other…

In the near future it will be possible to customize the food we eat  based on the genetic profile of the individual. Dutch researcher Amber Ronteltap suggests that the consumer market is not yet ready for this so-called nutrigenomics. Ronteltap concludes that many obstacles must be overcome before products based on nutrigenomics become a reality.  Nutrigenomics is a discipline that investigates the correlation between nutrients and the human genome. This area of science can contribute to public health and disease prevention by providing individuals with advice on specific…

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have discovered a gene that helps control the secretion of acid in the stomach—information that could one day aid scientists in creating more efficient treatment options for conditions such as acid reflux or peptic ulcers. This data is published in the Nov. 3 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). UC professor Manoocher Soleimani, MD, and colleagues found that when transporter Slc26a9—the gene responsible for the production of chloride in the stomach—is eliminated from the mouse model's system, acid secretion in the…