login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
Completely Neutral Evolutionary Changes Helped Shape Our Genome
Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Hopkins' Institute of Genetic Medicine said that the Hopkins experiments demonstrate that one of the major architectural markers of the human genome, DNA repeat elements that make up over 40 percent of our genome, rose to prominence without offering any benefits to the organism it inhabits. Repeat elements are fragments of DNA containing the same repetitive sequence of chemical base pairs several hundred times.
"For a long time, the basic belief of evolution was that all random genetic changes that manage to stick around have some selective advantage. But our work adds to the case that frequently, we are what we are largely due to random changes that are completely neutral," said Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Hopkins' Institute of Genetic Medicine
"I am not at all discounting the role of natural selection, the persistence of genetic changes that confer some advantage because it has been instrumental. What this study does is to reinforce and highlight the equal, and in some cases greater, importance of neutral genetic drift," Katsanis added.
Katsanis and his team first stumbled onto one type of repeat element while looking at genes associated with Bardet Biedl syndrome, a rare disorder of substantial interest to the lab. While hunting for new genes, they found portions of DNA that had been copied from the mitochondria, the energy-making apparatus of human cells that has its own small genome. These mitochondrial sequences are known as numts.
|
|
|
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
- News Quick Links
 | News Central | | Health Watch | |
| Latest Health News | | Health In Focus | |
| News Category (500+) | | Breaking Health News | |
| Popular News | | Celebrating Life | |
| Health News and Press Release | | Medindia - Exclusive | |
| News Photo Gallery | | India Special | |
| News Video Gallery | | Lifestyle and Wellness | |
| News From Other Resources | |||
| News Categories: |
| » | Gasoigne Swaps Booze for Botox |
| » | Michelle Obama: Name of Olive Tree in Italy |
| » | Beyonce: Most Beautiful Women in the World |
| » | Robin Gibb Recovers from Coma Wakes Up to Cancer |
| » | Botox and Vitamin Jabs Maintain Simon Cowell’s Young Looks |
| More Celebrity News | |
|
Genetics & Stem Cells Related News |
||||||||
| » | Gene Behind Chronic Inflammation Accelerated Aging and Cancer Identified | » | Discovery Of Male Fertility Genes | |||||
| » | Disease Risk Prediction may Not be Improved by Genetic Information | » | Scientists Map Gene Sequence of Drug Resistant VRSA | |||||
| » | Marker in Premies' Saliva Predicts Readiness to Feed by Mouth | » | Recovery From MS Maybe With Growth Factor In Stem Cells | |||||
| » | 'Rare' Genetic Variants are Surprisingly Common: Report Life Scientists | » | Genetic Test Results Do Not Trigger Increased Use of Health Services: NIH-Led Study | |||||
| Read More >> | ||||||||
