Human Chimeras

http://www.livescience.com/55684-human-chimeras.html

Recently, researchers have come under fire for their ideas of creating human-animal hybrids, or as they can be called, Chimeras. A chimera is any single organism that contains the cells of two or more individuals. While the idea of introducing cells from an animal into a human may seem extreme, there are certain instances where chimeras occur naturally.

While not the human-animal hybrid researchers are trying to create, thees chimeras involve humans containing the cells of other humans. This can occur if a mother absorbs cells from her fetus, a twin absorbs the other in the whom, or even from a bone marrow transplant.

DNA in samples of Ocean Water

Now with the use of new technology only small amounts of water are needed to run tests for the DNA of any target species. For example, the rare sawfish (pictured below) can have its location be identified by testing the sample of only some water. The test is called an eDNA test and is making waves in the area of natural sciences. Professor Colin Simpfendorfer who created this method says this can replace older methods like fish surveying which is time consuming and expensive.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160809095011.htm

Rio 2016: Genetically Modified Athletes?

Officials from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will roll out a brand new, previously unannounced form of drug testing for the international athletes competing at the Summer Olympic Games. In the past, the WADA has tested athletes in search of synthetic chemicals and hormones that would boost the athlete's performance in the arena. However, the newest form of "cheating" may come from within the athlete's own body.

The WADA test will identify if an athlete has artificially manipulated their genetic material through a process called gene doping. While there is zero previous evidence that gene doping is even happening, it makes sense for WADA to try to get out in front of the activity. Typically, the WADA is playing catch-up from the time a new steroid or performance-enhancing drug is created until a reliable and accurate test can be created and effectively administered. 

In 1989, a synthetic version of the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin (EPO) was created to combat anemia in chemotherapy patients. However, endurance athletes quickly realized the drug would enhance their red blood cell count, drastically improving their on-course performance. In the decade that followed, cyclists, cross-country skiers and other elite athletes injected EPO without any means from the WADA to combat its rampant use. 

Today, the greatest potential threat to the integrity of sport comes from inside the human body. Typically, human kidneys produce EPO when the blood’s oxygen supply is running low, like during a marathon. The hormone then triggers the production of more oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Hypothetically, someone could insert genes into their DNA that would synthesize more EPO than a body’s normal ability.

The test for gene doping was developed by a molecular biologist at Australia’s National Measurement Institute and has two parts: One checks for the virus a scientist would use to deliver the new DNA to the body, and the second part sequences a person’s EPO genes. A normal stretch of DNA has sequences of introns between the exon genes that produce the EPO protein. An artificial DNA sequence has all the EPO genes right next to each other, with no introns separating them.

“We feel there’s a great risk this novel technology will be used, so we are being proactive for the first time.” says Carl Johan Sundberg, an exercise physiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who reviewed the new test for WADA. 

Read more: http://www.wired.com/2016/07/olympic-drug-cops-will-scan-genetically-modified-athletes/

http://futurism.com/olympic-doping-authorities-worried-gene-therapy-may-be-the-new-drug-of-choice-at-rio/

Hangovers Tied to Genetics

http://vinepair.com/articles/tequila-wasnt-responsible-for-your-hangover-your-dna-was/

A recent study performed on 4000 twins from Australia has shown that your DNA and genetic makeup influence your likelihood of getting a hangover, and the severity of that hangover. These genetic markers are also closely tied to the amount of alcohol your body craves, so now after a heavy night of drinking, just blame your parents.

Surviving Elephants

Elephants are unique animals because they have the ability to learn and change their behavior, meaning they do not necessarily have to genetically change to adapt to a new environment like many other species. Scientists have recently studied both desert-dwelling and non-dessert dwelling elephants and have found that the DNA of the two was not significantly different. A historical record suggests that the Namibian elephants were able to survive drastic changes in climate and hunting pressure due to their high learning capacity and long distance migrations. These elephants hardly have any genetic differences and scientists believe it is due to their long distance migrations, large home ranges, increases in population, or the gene flow provided by the male breeding elephants breeding with different females. The scientists are advocating for the conservation of these elephants because their fight for survival is key for the future generations of elephants in the arid habitat.

Why Do We Inherit Mitochondrial DNA Only From Our Mothers?

We contain about 37 coding DNA within the mitochondria which has been proven we only inherit them from our mother. Study's has also shown that when inheriting the mitochondrial DNA from our father there is an occurrence of a mutation or may lead to embryonic death. There are some theories on why this may occur, for example researchers explained that when sperm is competing for the egg cell they tend to use a lot of energy and over work themselves, eliminate the DNA from the sperm and leading to the mutation. 

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/science/mitochondrial-dna-mothers.html

http://www.futurity.org/mothers-curse-mitochondria-1217112-2/

"Junk DNA" Responsible for Backbone Formation

Since the 1960s, scientists have researched non-coding portions of DNA within human and animal genomes. These portions, commonly called "junk DNA," are sections of the DNA sequence that are not responsible for the construction of the proteins that compose a living animal. As a result, many researchers believed the non-coding segments were left-over genetic debris from millions of years of evolution. In the last decade, the "junk" has been found to be anything but, as scientists think it could play an important role in evolution, such as body shape.

Recently, researchers led by developmental biologist Moises Mallo of the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, Portugal have examined mutant mice bred by the institute that contain 24 pairs of ribs, compared to the 13 pairs in normal mice. This mutation was traced back to the deactivation of the GDF11 junk gene, which controls another gene - OCT4 - that regulates stem cell development into many different cell types.

An x-ray of Moises Mallo's mice containing extra ribs.

Snakes, which also have both genes, naturally have dozens of ribs along the length of their spine. Mallo and his team spliced non-coding sections of snake DNA into normal mouse embryos near the OCT4 gene to see if the snake GDF11 would cause a prolonged growth spurt in the embryo. The team found that the embryos grew large amounts of additional spinal cord, implying that the junk DNA does indeed play a role in body shape regulation of animals.

Developmental biologist Valerie Wilson of the University of Edinburgh commented on the junk DNA:

“There’s an immense amount of variation in body length across vertebrates, but within species the number of ribs and so forth stays almost exactly the same. There must be some ways to alter the expression of those [genes] regulating evolution to generate this massive amount of variation that we see across the vertebrates.”

Read more: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/junk-dna-tells-mice-and-snakes-how-grow-backbone

 

Dolly the Sheep’s Fellow Clones, Enjoying Their Golden Years

Dolly the sheep was used for the study of cloning animals and whether if cloned animal would age prematurely. Scientists took a single adult cell, implanted into an egg cell where its own DNA was removed, and created an exact replica of its donor. Researchers explained that there were no abnormal deficiencies with the sheeps that were cloned but some appeared to show signs of osteoarthritis which Dolly was diagnosed with. Scientist declared that based on the new research cloning animals does not lead to the idea of premature aging.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/science/dolly-the-sheep-clones.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=19&pgtype=sectionfront

https://sites.psu.edu/maddieleap16/2016/07/27/dollys-fellow-clones-enjoying-the-golden-years/

DNA Study Reveals the One and Only Wolf Species in North America

Studies have shown that the genomes of North American wolves only have one type of species, known as the gray wolf. The other species of wolves in North America are the Eastern wolves and the red wolves, which are known to be a mixture of the grey wolf and the coyote. Coyotes developed the role of preying on small predictors, while the grey wolves preyed on the larger prey and development of rapid speed. Over the course of evolution, the grey wolves interbred with the coyotes in order to produce these hybrid offsprings. 

    

Scientist had examined the genomes of the Eastern and red wolves and explain how closely related they are but differentiated by the amount of coyote DNA they contained. Results have shown that the genome of the Red wolf contained 75% coyote and just 25% of the grey wolf. The genome of the Eastern wolf contained 75% of the grey wolf and 25% coyotes. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/science/red-eastern-gray-wolves.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

http://en.yibada.com/articles/146092/20160728/one-true-wolf-north-america-three-gray.htm

How Did Farming Expand?

Farming has brought numerous benefits to various societies across the globe.  Scientists have been trying to figure out how exactly how farming spread to different societies.  They are specifically paying attention to the comparison between the ideas of farming having been developed initially in the Fertile Crescent and spread through society or if it was developed individually in various areas around similar time frames.

A single group did carry farming to Europe: DNA from ancient farmers in western Anatolia shows that they were the direct ancestors of Europe’s first farmers, known as the Linear Pottery culture; present-day Sardinians share the most DNA with these ancient Anatolians. But the trail of the first farmers went cold in the hot climate of the Middle East, which destroys DNA.

 Though there is evidence of farming being taught, there is still debate as to how the techniques initially began to grow and spread.  Various local societies used different tools in their farming suggesting that it was independently developed.  Though there is also evidence that these various local societies traded obsidan (a volcanic glass), so there is a high possibility that seeds and farming knowledge was also traded.  Of course there is a third option of both occurring! 

A Look At Biodiversity Through The Eyes of DNA

DNA has the ability to introduce facts about a species way of life with one simple strand. Hanna Landenmark who is obtaining a doctorate in astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh is looking into global biodiversity by the means of DNA. By examining the number of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and even viruses, Landenmark and her colleagues formatted the biomass of each of the size of the organisms and the amount currently living. Their next step was figuring out how many cells were in these entities and multiplying that number by the count of DNA in the cell. The results from the researchers (Landenmark, Forgan, Cockell) stated in PLOSBiology journal “Earth contains around 50 trillion trillion trillion DNA base pairs — the building blocks of DNA’s double helix — plus or minus 3.6 x 10³⁷ base pairs.” That amount of DNA weighs up to 50 billion tons all together.

Earth’s DNA transcription rate was calculated also by the researchers, resulting in the ability to process DNA by 10²⁴ subunits each second. The information obtained by the researchers is simply an introductory data for calculations that could give more definite numbers by knowing the complete amount of animals in certain ecosystems and the size and amount of copies in genomes of species. These statistics have yet to become available.

DNA has been a prominent aspect for the scientific community for understanding our past, present, and future. The idea of determining how much DNA is truly on this planet I think will help discovering species that have not yet been classified. The start of this research has opened up a huge field of opportunities for the future of DNA research.

Superbugs Around Us and How They Come About

As we know, anything in life is not 100% perfect. Computers “act up”, Disinfectant sprays reading “kills 99.9% of germs”, and even human error prevents things being totally precise. It’s safe to say when regarding bacteria and infections, all people want 100% results. However, because of miscalculations, natural occurrences, and environmental cesspools, “superbugs”, have formed. Sounding like something out of a comic book, superbugs are formed as a result of the use of antibiotics. Some bacteria cells survive the exposure to antibiotics, and in turn, become immune to certain widely used drugs to treat bacterial infections.

These bacterial species can become stronger due to the stress that antibiotics inflict on bacterial cells, causing them to mutate. In general, the probability of mutation occurring by chance is about one out of every million copies of a gene of a bacterium. The ability for these prokaryotic cells to change offers harmful effects on humans because 100% of them are not dying. Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), a strain of MRSA, or otherwise known as staph infection, arose from mutation. Vancomycin is the drug of last resort for this infection, proposing the educated guess of the possibility of more mutations and another antibiotic-resistant strain, leaving no drug to treat it.

Resistant genes are also made apparent by gene transfer. Humans reproduce sexually; traits are transferred vertically from parent to child. Prokaryotes do not reproduce sexually, but they exchange DNA between cells. This is known as horizontal gene transfer.  There are three ways horizontal gene transfer can occur: conjugation, transduction, and transformation.  

Conjugation requires cell-to-cell contact, and is common with E. coli. When E. coli cells become in contact with one another, plasmids are transferred. The best known plasmid capable of transfer is the F Plasmid, F for fertility factor. Cells that contain F plasmids are known as F+ cells, and cells that do not have the F plasmid cells are called F- cells. During the process of conjugation in E. coli, the F+ donor cell comes in contact with the F- recipient cell, and a pilus is formed on the F+ cell, acting as a the conjugation bridge. The F plasmid is replicated in the donor cell, displacing a parental strand, which gets transferred to the recipient cell and replicated once more. The F plasmid’s DNA is copied into the F- cell, changing it to an F+ cell. The new F+ cell then has the capability to use the same technique to transfer DNA as the original donor cell. The process is known as the rolling-circle replication.

Transduction is seen as an accident. When a phage infects a cell, it injects its DNA into the cell, and the phage DNA is replicated, and the host DNA is degraded. Phage particles are then packaged with DNA and released. When the phage package their DNA, they can package host DNA instead of phage DNA, producing a transducing phage. When the transducing phage infects a new cell, it only injects a piece of chromosomal DNA, which is incorporated by homologous recombination. The new cell contains DNA from the donor. The transducing phage incorporates its DNA into a cell, resulting in change in the genetic makeup of the cell to be like the donor cell, rather than phages being released as explained before.

Transformation occurs when one cell dies and releases its contents to its surroundings. These DNA fragments and be taken up in another cell and the DNA is incorporated by homologous recombination. The cell then contains DNA from the donor cell.

Antibiotic resistance can also occur due to contact with animals. Animals raised for food are given antibiotics either to promote growth, like Ractopamine, which promotes lean muscle growth, or to treat infections. “When you give low-dose antibiotics for growth promotion or for prophylaxis of infection, you end up killing off the susceptible bacteria, whether they’re E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter, or other bacteria,” says Robert S. Lawrence, M.D., director of the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “And you continue to select for those bacteria that, through spontaneous mutations or transfer of genes from other resistant bacteria, allow them to be resistant to antibiotics.” This is an example for the “cesspools” mentioned before. Because of the close living quarters of the animals, it is a breeding ground for new antibiotic resistant bacteria cells to form.

Another breeding ground is hospitals. Since superbugs evolve from the heavy use of antibiotics, hospitals are a culprit. Also, considering the amount of open wounds and tubes carrying blood, that is another reason why hospitals are susceptible to antibiotic resistant superbugs. College campuses are another environment superbugs enjoy because of the unwashed clothing and sheets, being exposed to so many people, frequently used cafeteria trays, and even beer pong cups.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/pork0113.htm
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/12/superbug-facts-to-know-as-ndm-1-emerges.html

Class of RNA molecules protects germ cells from damage

Biologists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have come too a new theory on the human male's loss of fertility. These molecules called pachytene piwi-interacting RNAs, or piRNAs serve a protective role in the body's passing on of genes to offspring. Without these molecules germ cell development in males comes to an abrupt end. They protect by suppressing the activity of transposable elements or "jumping genes," which are stretches of DNA that can change position and cause potentially damaging genetic mutations. These sequences are also known as transposons. Lack of these certain cells can cause massive DNA damage.
"There are about 50 human diseases caused by transposable elements, so it's important for the body to have a way to try to repress them," Jeremy Wang said. Wang and his colleague authored the entire study and are experts in the field. In experiments with lab mice, in the presence of these germ cells lack of mature sperm was evident. The master role that these RNA cells serve are irreplaceable, and otherwise could lead too many health problems. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. piRNA Article- ScienceDaily

Human Body Rids itself of Damage When It Really Matters

The human body, when its time to reproduce and create a new life the body gets rid of damaged material. The researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden state that all the cell look the same in the embryo after conception which is the start of cleansing themselves.The cells only divide a limited number of times when normally they are dividing infinitely. Protein levels in the c ells get high but than they go back down most of the way. That is made to believe that this is the way of breaking down damaged material. Researchers believed that in the past the cells that were involved in reproduction were kept isolated so it would be protected by damaged. The cells now go through a process that rejuvenates them and gets rid of the inherited damage. Their are types of protein that damage in the body with the increase of age. The necessary information is stored in the DNA and can keep the body sometimes from using it so it can keep repairing the body

Genetic Study Confirms First Dogs Came From East Asia

Man's best friend is always there for us but did you ever wonder where he came from? In this article it explains that researchers at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology say they found proof that dogs (ancestor of the wolf) have been traced back to Southern East Asia. According to the article it says " Our analysis of Y- chromosomal DNA now confirms that wolves were first domesticated in Asia south of Yangtze River we call it the ASY region in southern China or Southeast Asia." Peter Savolainen and Mattias Oskarsson were working with Chinese colleagues and analyzed the DNA from all male dogs all across the world. According to the results half of the gene pool was said to be universally shared everywhere in the world but the ASY region had the entire range of genetic diversity. What all this means basically is that it shows us that all the gene pools out there basically originate from the ASY region. So with the information given it is a safe bet to assume that this was in fact the origin of the domestication. It's amazing to think how we can come up with unbelievable information like this just by looking into DNA and genetics. We have some brilliant minds working out there.