Chimpanzee and bonobo skin cells have been turned them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Mouse iPSCs were created in 2006 by Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan, and human iPSCs soon followed----feats which earned Yamanaka the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine last year. Now scientists regularly use iPSCs to model diseases using cells that would be otherwise difficult to obtain from a living person or animal. By adding a combination of four key factors, a skin cell can be made into an iPSC, which can then be coaxed into forming liver, lung and brain cells in a culture dish.
Advertisement
It's now possible to not only model disease using the cells, but also to compare iPSCs from humans to those of our closest living relatives----great apes, with which we share a majority of genes----for insight into what molecular and cellular features make us human.
"Comparing human, chimpanzee and bonobo cells can give us clues to understand biological processes, such as infection, diseases, brain evolution, adaptation or genetic diversity," says senior research associate Iñigo Narvaiza, who led the study with senior staff scientist Carol Marchetto at the Salk Institute in La Jolla. "Until now, the sources for chimpanzee and bonobo cells were limited to postmortem tissue or blood. Now you could generate neurons, for example, from the three different species and compare them to test hypotheses."
![Stem Cells - Cord Blood]( "Stem Cells - Cord Blood")
In the new study, published online October 23 in the journal Nature, scientists found disparities in the regulation of jumping genes or transposons----DNA elements that can copy and paste themselves into spots throughout the genome----between humans and non-human primate cells. Jumping genes provide a means to rapidly shuffle DNA and might be shaping the evolution of our genomes, the scientists say.
Working in the lab of Salk's Fred Gage, the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease, Narvaiza, Marchetto and their colleagues identified genes that are differentially expressed between iPSCs from humans and both chimpanzees and bonobos.
To the group's surprise, two of those genes code for proteins that restrict a jumping gene called long interspersed element-1or L1, for short. Compared with non-human primate cells, human iPSCs expressed higher levels of these restrictors, called APOBEC3B and PIWIL2. "We weren't expecting that," Marchetto says. "Those genes caught our eyes, so they were the first targets we focused on."
Source: Eurekalert
Advertisement
In the new study, published online October 23 in the journal Nature, scientists found disparities in the regulation of jumping genes or transposons----DNA elements that can copy and paste themselves into spots throughout the genome----between humans and non-human primate cells. Jumping genes provide a means to rapidly shuffle DNA and might be shaping the evolution of our genomes, the scientists say.
Working in the lab of Salk's Fred Gage, the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease, Narvaiza, Marchetto and their colleagues identified genes that are differentially expressed between iPSCs from humans and both chimpanzees and bonobos.
To the group's surprise, two of those genes code for proteins that restrict a jumping gene called long interspersed element-1or L1, for short. Compared with non-human primate cells, human iPSCs expressed higher levels of these restrictors, called APOBEC3B and PIWIL2. "We weren't expecting that," Marchetto says. "Those genes caught our eyes, so they were the first targets we focused on."
Source: Eurekalert
Bone Marrow Aspiration and Biopsy
Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration is the removal of some bone marrow tissue for diagnosis and management of cancers of blood cells and multiple myeloma.
Advertisement
Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Recommended Reading
Latest Genetics & Stem Cells News
Can stem cell therapy cure fistula? Yes, treatment with stem cells has had a success rate when used in perianal fistulas due to Crohn's Disease.
In zebrafish models of SURF1 mitochondrial disease, scientists have discovered drugs to prevent neurological decompensation.
New study advances intravitreal gene therapy platform to develop safe and effective therapies for visual loss in Usher Syndrome, rare disorder.
The study experiments shed light on a rare example of how autism-associated mutation could altered nuclear dynamics.
A genotype-first approach to patient care involves selecting patients with specific genomic variants and then studying their traits and symptoms.