Genetics

Hi, I was wondering wich population size would be small enough in order to make genetic drift to become at least as important as selection in determining evolution. I think I'd read in an old book by Dobzhansky that Nμ≥1 (N being the effective population size and μ being the mutation rate) was a good mesure, but I'm not sure wether that's still considered valid or if any new mesures are widespread or standard among scientists. Anyone has a clue on this? Thank you all PD: Should I rather post this thread on the Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology subforum or is it OK here?

It pains me to see people suffering from debilitating genetic diseases, where (if their lucky) the only treatment is to mildly reduce the symptoms. Maybe not now or even in 20 years, but is there any possibility that an individuals genetic errors could be fixed? I really can't think of any mechanism that could do this, even in a far-reaching theory. Your thoughts? ~ee

Is there any simple way one can increase rate of mutations in plants? I'm talking about some method that anyone could easily do at home.I was thinking about heat shock,that is,treating seeds with heat shocks just before they germinate.I know there are fancy ways of doing this such as the use of mutagenic chemicals(EMS,DMS,sodium azide...) and radiation,but those are out of ordinary person's reach.The reason I thought heat shocks might work is because I found (maybe)mutant/chimera of a pursulane in my greenhouse,which is varieated(though this might be a result of viral infection).The plants in the greenhouse were exposed to extreme high temperatures by mistake. Another…

Hello, Is it possible for a virus to go through these stages?: First find a way to enter the germs cells (of a human/animal). Then integrates its DNA with that of the cell. After that the cell through sexual intercourse fertilize another cell/is fertilized. And then the egg goes through division, creating a living multicellular organism. Then the virus is present in every single cell of that organism. (human embryo for example) Thank you

Hy, What are the genes for having a brown complexion for example like Paul Dirac and Louis De Broglie; and what are the genes for having a pale complexion like Erwin Schrodinger ? Are they known? Thank you !

It pains me to see people suffering from debilitating genetic diseases, where (if their lucky) the only treatment is to mildly reduce the symptoms. Maybe not now or even in 20 years, but is there any possibility that an individuals genetic errors could be fixed? I really can't think of any mechanism that could do this, even in a far-reaching theory. Your thoughts? ~ee

Hello, My name is Andrew Brinton, and I am entering my school's Advanced Science Research team this coming school year as a sophomore in high school. During my past two years learning Earth Science and Biology, I have discovered a love for the sciences, which is why I joined my school's AP Bio class and ASR team. This past year as a ninth grader, I was assigned to write a bioethics paper. The class was given a multitude of topics to choose from, and I chose the topic of cloning. The idea of the paper was to share my views on the question; should biotech companies or the government regulate human cloning? I thought I might share my paper here, and gain opinions from th…

Hello everyone I have some questions regarding apoptosis. I'm a medical student who doesn't know much about biology and genetics so i was wondering if you could guide me through this. I'm only doing this out of my own interest though, so you don't have to bee too specific. I have to mention that I only roughly have an idea of how apoptosis works. Now to my questions, 1. Are there any cells that are "not" capable of apoptosis inside our body? 2. Is there a way to stop apoptosis of a cell once it's initiated? 3. Can you list some different ways a cell can undergo apoptosis? ( eg. end of cell's cycle, viruses etc) 4. How long the process takes on average…

I read somewhere that during the sex , the women keeps adn from the man . i thing both parteners change adn during the sex. sometimes two people start to looke like each other after many years. after how many years is possible to have children with probleme beacose of the dna transfer , when they tend to become the same person. it is possible? it any study? sory for mistake , eanglish is not my native language I read somewhere

Hi Genetics gurus! Need your help. We are planning on using an egg donor and she is not tested to be a carrier for any genetic conditions tested as shown on the second pic. However, on first pic there is another table that confuses me. What does it mean? Shall I be worried about it? Thank you!

Hi everyone - I'm doing some work in psychiatry genetics and am looking for a way to estimate the likelihood that two genes are linked. I understand that basic concept that experimental measurement of recombination frequency is used to estimate the distance between two genes. Theoretically then, one should be able to use the distance between two genes, when it is known, to estimate the recombination frequency. Does anyone know mathematically how this would be done? To reword this in my specific case, I'd like to estimate the recombination frequency of two genes on chromosome 6 (171 million base pairs) which are known to be ~6 million base pairs apart. Thanks for y…

Hi, I need a proper direction. I am conducting an independent experiment. The aim is to put an ectA gene into the yeast. It seems that I cannot get an ectABC operon from anywhere, however SigmaAldrich has ectoine for sale. So, I am having a protein - but I need to get a gene of interest. In the terms of experiment, how do I go from there? Do I need to construct a cDNA? Regards, I.

If you are living in a multicultural/multiethnic/multiracial western society, is it preferable to be born to parents who speak the exact same languages and both come from the same country and share the same culture or is it better that they are different? Children from such families who have parents who are very different from each other often have trouble finding who they are in society from their failure to belong anywhere. If you could select the race/background of your parents and the languages they spoke, would you want them to be as similar to each other so you are able to maintain your parents heritage better and keep family traditions going etc.?

I'm having another problem with doing a differential analysis of RNA sequences using command line Bio bioinformatics. I have been given 5 case and 5 control reads when need to be compared

I need to identify an organism using results generated from Illumina sequencing but I have no idea where to start. I know that I need to check my results quality and then make an assembly but I don't know where to begin... PS, I'm new to the whole command line Bioinformatics thing

Hello, I'm new on these forums and I have a doubt I bet someone here could help me solving. I'm a secondary-school student and whenI was doing a work that involves population genetics I found the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium to be relevant as it constitutes one of the basis of population genetics. While I do totally understand the equations that show how we can know the allele frequencies if we know the frequency of the recessive character, I have troubles understanding why is it predicted that the result of the mixing will produce stable frequencies within the time. Although most explanations on the subject I have consulted on the net take this point for granted, I h…

I was just thinking about how to avoid death in AIDS.... I thought of an idea....we know that ADA can be treated by using recombinant DNA techniques..... so what if we go to the sourse of the production of leucocytes... the bone marrow.... can't we make artificial bone marrow with recombinant DNA..... using the same technique can't we transfer the function of T-lymphocyte and neutrophil(which is 60-65% of wbc's ) and then do a bone marrow transfer as done in leukaemia....of the artificially made bone marrow... so even though our T helper cells die... our antibodies keep on producing lowering the risk of other diseases..and thus avoiding death maybe....it's just an idea. I…

I am wondering what scientists would do with alien DNA if they acquired it. It is my belief that the government has alien DNA for example this "alien skull" was found This is what is known as the "Star child" skull, It may just be a skull of some sort of stone age mutant but speculation aside, lets just say the skull is genuine space alien. Other traces of alleged alien remains have been publicly found such as the "Kyshtym alien" Or better yet lets just say we got our hands on some Roswell alien remains. What could the government do with alien DNA if they truly had it? I don't think it would be possi…

Hello! I am studying medicine and recently came across this karyogram (Attached File). I identified that it is an Ullrich-Turner Syndrome, but i am still unsure about the other chromosomes (for example the 2 two chromosomes look rather strange, like one morphed into the others) I hope you can solve the mystery! Greetings Max

Recently I've come across some claims based off of an old 1995 study that Sokoto Nigerians are "the closest genetically" to chimpanzees out of all the ethnic groups that the study sampled. Being woefully unversed in the field of genetics, I find myself relatively unable to analyze the study appropriately, as well as the possibility that it has been misapplied. I see a lot of white supremacist websites using this study as proof that west africans are somehow more animalistic or less human than other ethnic groups, some even using Sokoto Nigerians as a proxy for all blacks, which given the genetic diversity found within the african continent is obviously incorrect. So my qu…

Hello, so this is my first post and I found this forum looking for a place to clear up my confusion with this question, then I saw the other forum sections and got excited and registered. I have a very limited knowledge in this area and I hope with this post I will be able to gain a better understanding. tl;dr: are modern ethnic groups/racial groups determined by Haplogroups, or by language families. Are haplogroups reliable? They conflict with language families, as language family theories state that a group of people migrated from one area while haplogroups claim something completely different. Examples: Are Romanians an extension of Italic peoples from the Roman em…

Hey there! I need some help and I thought I'd come here. What are some of the most notable breakthroughs in science that wouldn't have been possible without the discovery of DNA? Also what breakthroughs might come of it in the future?

Hello! I am just starting to learn about the different molecular methodologies for genetic analysis, and I'm getting confused about all the different types of sequencing. I was wondering if someone could give me a brief overview of situations in which you would use sanger, pyrosequencing, or NGS, and why you would choose a particular type over another type? Many thanks

Can surplus vectors infect someone who is not the patient and change their DNA? Thanks for the help!

Seedless watermelons are achieved through the making of a triploid organism supposed to be sterile, but why do seedless watermelons sometimes contain black, apparently viable, seeds?