Genetics
Category archives for Genetics
Biology of Color Preference
Posted by Greg Laden on January 30, 2008 Color is funny. Anthropologists have long known that different cultures have different relationships, linguistically and in day to day practice, to the color spectrum. For example, the Efe Pygmy Hunter-Gatherers of the Ituri Forest describe things as white, black, or red, and that’s it. They live in a world of green. Going with the model…
Monstrous Hope: Reply to Coturnix
Posted by Greg Laden on January 27, 2008 This is my reply to a post by Coturnix called The Hopeless Monster? Not so fast!
Hybrids of Blind Fish Can See
Posted by Greg Laden on January 27, 2008 The loss of sight in cave dwelling species is widely known. We presume that since sight in utter darkness has no fitness value, the mutation of a gene critical to the development of the sense of sight is not selected against. Over time, any population living in darkness will eventually experience experience such mutations, and…
Hopeful Monsters and Hopeful Models
Posted by Greg Laden on January 24, 2008 A hopeful monster is a mutant born with a genetically determined and large novel trait (compared to its parents) which confers enhanced fitness on that individual. This enhanced fitness increases the likelihood that the new mutant gene that determines this trait will be passed on and spread throughout the evolving population, so in a single…
Natural Genetic Variation in Maize Nutritional Quality
Posted by Greg Laden on January 18, 2008 They always told you to eat your carrots, to improve your eyesight. Well, a deficiency of vitamin A (found in carrots, and lots of other foods) causes eye disease in a lot of children. In areas where Maize (corn) is a significant staple, there can be a problem because maize varies a great deal in…
Genome Size, Adaptations, Constraints, Exaptations, Aptations, and so on…
Posted by Greg Laden on January 18, 2008 There is a discussion on the internet about Junk DNA, that includes a discussion at Sandwalk (Larry Moran’s blog) … I made a comment there about genome size that was responded to by T.R. Gregory. I started to write my response in Larry’s Little Box, but realized that it would not fit. So it is…
Moran, Gregory, Give me a Break!
Posted by Greg Laden on January 16, 2008 Well, it is a good thing that I have a thick skin and a good sense of humor, or I would be very put off by Larry Moran and probably T. Ryan Gregory as well. Apparently, I stepped into an ongoing partially ad hominem debate over “Junk DNA” centering on the work of John Mattick…
Genes are only part of the story: ncRNA does stuff
Posted by Greg Laden on January 15, 2008 You know that organisms develop, grow, and function in part because genes code for proteins that form the building blocks of life or that function as working bioactive molecules (like enzymes). You also know that most DNA is junk, only a couple percent actually coding for anything useful. Most importantly, however, you know that everything…
The Origin of Syphilis
Posted by Greg Laden on January 14, 2008 Syphilis is first clearly seen in Europe in 1495, when it appeared as a plague (though it was not “the blague” … Yersinia pestis) among Charles VIII’s troops. When these troops went home shortly after the fall of Naples, they brought this disease with them, staring an epidemic. The level of mortality in Europe was…
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) song
Posted by Greg Laden on January 12, 2008 Hat tips: Evolgen Biorad Biosingularity ..And, pretty much everybody else on the Internet. Can you identify the singers that are being parodies? (or at least, imitated?)
New Twist in microRNA biology
Posted by Greg Laden on January 11, 2008 MIT scientists have found a new way that DNA can carry out its work that is about as surprising as discovering that a mold used to cast a metal tool can also serve as a tool itself, with two complementary shapes each showing distinct functional roles. Professor Manolis Kellis and postdoctoral research fellow Alexander Stark…
Lysenko would be so proud…
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2008 A glow in the dark pig has given birth to more glow in the dark pigs.
Lamarckian Mechanism in Ciliates
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2008 A group of scientists … has uncovered a new biological mechanism that could provide a clearer window into a cell’s inner workings…..What’s more, this mechanism could represent an “epigenetic” pathway — a route that bypasses an organism’s normal DNA genetic program — for so-called Lamarckian evolution, enabling an organism to pass on to its offspring…
MIT finds key to avian flu in humans
Posted by Greg Laden on January 6, 2008 From a Massachusetts Institute of Technology press release: researchers have uncovered a critical difference between flu viruses that infect birds and humans, a discovery that could help scientists monitor the evolution of avian flu strains and aid in the development of vaccines against a deadly flu pandemic.
Alcohol, Sexual Attraction, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Performance
Posted by Greg Laden on January 3, 2008 Daily alcohol use by males has been shown to increase sexual arousal and decrease sexual inhibition.
Race is a social construct and a self fulfilling prophecy all wrapped up together
Posted by Greg Laden on December 22, 2007 Gene Expression has the second in a pair of posts on race that is worth a close look. In Why phenotypic races may not disappear, G.E. speaks of the particulate nature of inheritance in relation to culturally defined racial types (that are in turn based on appearance).
Heritability of Magical Powers Investigated
Posted by Greg Laden on December 21, 2007 A multilocus model with a dominant gene for magic might exist, controlled epistatically by one or more loci, possibly recessive in nature. Magical enhancers regulating gene expressionmay be involved, combined with mutations at specific genes implicated in speech and hair colour such as FOXP2 and MCR1. The most important thing about this study is not…
Reduced Verbal Ability in African American Children
Posted by Greg Laden on December 19, 2007 African American children may have reduced verbal ability compared to other children to a degree that is roughly equivalent to missing a year in school, according to a recently published paper. Is this evidence of a racial difference? The study by Sampson et.al., published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences included more…
Life history trade-offs and human pygmies
Posted by Greg Laden on December 16, 2007 Every few years a paper comes out “explaining” short stature in one or more Pygmy groups. Most of the time the new work ads new information and new ideas but fails to be convincing. This is the case with the recent PNAS paper by Migliano et al. From the abstract:
Japanese Develop Fearless Mouse
Posted by Greg Laden on December 13, 2007 Fearless Mouse In this undated photo released by Tokyo University’s Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry Graduate School of Science, a genetically modified mouse stays near a cat in Tokyo. Using genetic engineering, scientists at Tokyo University say they have successfully switched off the rodents’ instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats, showing…
Scientists Investigate Gorilla Biogeography
Posted by Greg Laden on December 13, 2007 The Central African Rainforest (as distinct from the West African Rain Forest) spans an area from the Atlantic coast to nearly Lake Victoria in Uganda and Tanzania. In fairly recent times (the mid Holocene) this forest was probably continuous all the way to Victoria, and probably extended farther north and south than one might imagine…
More “Junk” DNA is Not
Posted by Greg Laden on December 12, 2007 Some 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.”…
Human Evolutionary Rate Study
Posted by Greg Laden on December 11, 2007 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,…
Study Suggests Increased Rate of Human Adaptive Evolution
Posted by Greg Laden on December 10, 2007 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.
Origin of Native America
Posted by Greg Laden on November 28, 2007 The 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…
Blind Watchmaker Video
Posted by Greg Laden on November 27, 2007 Blind Watchmaker Video
Science News Tidbits
Posted by Greg Laden on November 27, 2007 Prenatal Arsenic; Electric Fish; Cholera
Get Your Own Genome Sequenced
Posted by Greg Laden on November 17, 2007 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…
, which is now available for the 
