DNA // Current

Fragrances Made From Celebrity DNA

Now you can purchase Marilyn Monroe's, Michael Jackson's, or even Marie Antoinette's... more

jwheat22
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Home Office to store DNA of innocent people for 6 years not 12

Planning on getting arrested? If you are and you're not charged, the government will... more

richjm
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4 comments

More evidence showing nanoparticles effect DNA

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found some nanoparticles - which can be found... more

JanforGore
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Genome 10K: A New Ark

Biologists can tell a lot about how living things evolved by rooting around in their genes, comparing snippets of DNA from supposedly related — or unrelated — species. This only works, of course, if catalogs of those DNA snippets exist. Which they largely don’t yet — but could in the not-too-distant future. At least, that is, if a consortium of researchers gets its way — and a boatload of money.

Earlier this year, a group of scientists launched the Genome 10K Project. Its aim: to collect tissues or cells from at least 10,000 vertebrate species — enough to catalog DNA sequences from about every vertebrate genus. The project has gained a lot of momentum and the support of researchers at more than 40 zoos, museums, universities and other research centers. Dozens of these scientists have now lent their names as authors to a new Journal of Heredity paper, posted early, online, today, describing what they hope to learn.

And that’s simple, says geneticist David Haussler of the University of California, Santa Cruz: “We want to see evolution in action.”

Really? By looking at the DNA from a single male and female of each of thousands of different critters?

Many species host identical long stretches of DNA. What’s interesting is where they differ. And sometimes a huge difference in the appearance of animals — say humans and chimps — may trace to less than a 2 percent difference in their genes, Haussler says. To find out where particular traits emerged and when, geneticists can look for the time in the distant past when the gene for one or more traits mutated.

By knowing when animals diverged in the archeological record and what traits are associated with that split, Haussler says, scientists can now tie those new traits to particular genes. From that, they can essentially date when these novel features emerged, and how broadly they’ve spread among seemingly related species. “That’s witnessing evolution in action,” he explains.

Despite its 10K name, the project actually seeks to map the DNA of 16,203 species. It’s an unusual and explicit figure. It’s also the number of species for which tissues or cellular samples already exist in storage somewhere — perhaps at a zoo or in some museum freezer. Yes freezer. None of these species need be killed for the first round of genomic analyses — because “they’ve already gone to their maker,” observes geneticist Stephen O’Brien. The chief of the National Cancer Institute’s genomic-diversity laboratory, he’s able to contribute quite a few such samples from the dearly departed.

But with current DNA-sequencing costing $50,000 to $100,000 per test sample, the Genome 10K Project would break the research community’s bank. So its designers have decided to wait for sequencing costs to drop by a factor of 10 or more — probably in the next couple years — before launching their analytical program in earnest. By that point, the whole project might be accomplished for something around $50 million, Haussler suspects.

Once the Genome 10K Project begins transcribing DNA blueprints for each vertebrate genus on Earth, biologists risk becoming buried by an avalanche of data. We’re talking about petabytes — roughly a billion gigabytes — of information that must be collected, analyzed and stored, Haussler says. That too can be costly. But he looks forward to having that problem — more comparative genetic data than he knows what to do with.Biologists can tell a lot about how living things evolved by rooting around in their... more

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Top 10 Most Famous Lab Discoveries in History

Sometimes, lab experiments yield the results expected, and at other times, lab... more

Healthylivinggal
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19 days ago
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FBI: DNA backlog will be fixed

Another federal agency has been brought into Congressman Vern Buchanan’s... more

Future_America
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1 month ago
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SoReFa pt. 1

This is The greatest fashion show this year!!! Tune in ,tell a friend!

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Dance of the Manta Ray

Peace and Beauty... DNA VARIATIONS - THE SEA Composed and Produced by Stuart... more

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DNA leads to suspect after 19 years, FBI says

(CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the 1990 abduction and attempted murder of an... more

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Have Humans Entered a New Stage of Evolution?

Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the... more

Quiggles
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Why Study the Tree of Life? [video]

What can scientists learn about the world by knowing how all living things are related... more

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DNA sequencing in a holey new way

IBM will announce on Tuesday how it intends to hold DNA molecules in tiny holes in... more

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Discovering the Great Tree of Life [video]

This video presents a very brief glimpse into what I do as a professional researcher... more

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1 month ago
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DNA on bloody clothes matches missing US diplomat

The weeklong search for an American diplomat has taken a grim turn as investigators on... more

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1 month ago
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Scientists Decry "Horrifying" UK Border Test Plan

Scientists are dismayed and outraged at a new project by the UK border agency to test... more

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Adolf Hitler's Skull Not His; But A Woman's

The fragment of skull, marked by a bullet hole, long believed by the scientists that... more

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Blue-Eyed Humans Have a Single, Common Ancestor

New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.

What is the genetic mutation

“Originally, we all had brown eyes”, said Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which literally “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes”. The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin. The “switch”, which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris – effectively “diluting” brown eyes to blue. The switch’s effect on OCA2 is very specific therefore. If the OCA2 gene had been completely destroyed or turned off, human beings would be without melanin in their hair, eyes or skin color – a condition known as albinism.

Limited genetic variation

Variation in the colour of the eyes from brown to green can all be explained by the amount of melanin in the iris, but blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes. “From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor,” says Professor Eiberg. “They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” Brown-eyed individuals, by contrast, have considerable individual variation in the area of their DNA that controls melanin production.

Professor Eiberg and his team examined mitochondrial DNA and compared the eye colour of blue-eyed individuals in countries as diverse as Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. His findings are the latest in a decade of genetic research, which began in 1996, when Professor Eiberg first implicated the OCA2 gene as being responsible for eye colour.

Nature shuffles our genes

The mutation of brown eyes to blue represents neither a positive nor a negative mutation. It is one of several mutations such as hair color, baldness, freckles and beauty spots, which neither increases nor reduces a human’s chance of survival. As Professor Eiberg says, “it simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.”New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team... more

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Scientists Find The Gene That Produces THC

Scientists have identified the genes in cannabis that allow the plant to produce THC.... more

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2 months ago
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Prospector's Health Tonic Tricks (they didn't have no vaccines)

Naturally Repair: Diabetics, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer's,... more

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Texas DNA exonerees....Millionaires?

DALLAS – Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer.

"I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery.

He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the wrongly convicted, soon will become instant millionaires under a new state law that took effect this week.

Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package.

"I'm nervous and excited," said McGowan, 50. "It's something I never had, this amount of money. I didn't have any money — period."

His payday for his imprisonment — a time he described as "a nightmare," "hell" and "slavery" — should come by mid-November after the state's 45-day processing period.

Exonerees also receive an array of social services, including job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment. Though 27 other states have some form of compensation law for the wrongly convicted, none comes close to offering the social services and money Texas provides.

The annuity payments are especially popular among exonerees, who acknowledge their lack of experience in managing personal finances. A social worker who meets with the exonerees is setting them up with financial advisers and has led discussions alerting them to swindlers.

The annuities are "a way to guarantee these guys ... payments for life as long as they follow the law," said Kevin Glasheen, a Lubbock attorney representing a dozen exonerees.

Two who served about 26 years in prison for rape will receive lump sums of about $2 million apiece. Another, Steven Phillips, who spent about 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary, will get about $1.9 million.

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Money doesn't solve everything, but for a government it does make for a start in a sorry for a massive mistake.DALLAS – Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in... more

J_Jammer
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3 months ago
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tagged w/ DNA

Fragrances Made From Celebrity DNA

Home Office to store DNA of innocent people for 6 years not 12

More evidence showing nanoparticles effect DNA

Genome 10K: A New Ark

Top 10 Most Famous Lab Discoveries in History

FBI: DNA backlog will be fixed

SoReFa pt. 1

Dance of the Manta Ray

DNA leads to suspect after 19 years, FBI says

Have Humans Entered a New Stage of Evolution?

Why Study the Tree of Life? [video]

DNA sequencing in a holey new way

Discovering the Great Tree of Life [video]

DNA on bloody clothes matches missing US diplomat

Scientists Decry "Horrifying" UK Border Test Plan

Adolf Hitler's Skull Not His; But A Woman's

Blue-Eyed Humans Have a Single, Common Ancestor

Scientists Find The Gene That Produces THC

Prospector's Health Tonic Tricks (they didn't have no vaccines)

Texas DNA exonerees....Millionaires?

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