Genetics

"Good news for lesbians who want to have biological children related to both parents: a new stem-cell technique could allow scientists to convert female cells into sperm. Use that sperm to fertilize an egg, and voila: children with two female biological parents. In unpublished work reported by New Scientist and the Telegraph, British scientists at the University of Newcastle coaxed female embryonic stem cells to develop into primitive sperm cells. Next, the researchers, led by stem-cell biologist Karim Nayernia, plan to create sperm cells from female bone marrow, making the procedure more practical. They haven't yet made the primitive sperm undergo the final cell divi…

Is DNA testing safe to us? Where there are some people couldn't accept DNA testing? There has been lots of promotion from DNA testing centers to encourage people to submit their DNA in order to establish a complete and systematic DNA database. ^^^This is what i've written regarding this matter ^^^ I wanna have your views and opinions. Thank you.

I need to know what are the genes present on Y chromosome and what each is responsible for.

1) Methylation of K9 of histone H3(by an enzyme (SUV39H1) is associated with heterochromatization and gene silencing.It has been reported that methylation of H3 by other enzymes can lead to transcriptional activation.With a detailed ans specific example explain how methylation can lead to opposite effects? 2)suppose that X-activation were not a random process but always led to the inactivation of the X chromosome derived from the father.what effect would you expect to have on the phenotype of females.

I was wondering if the percentage of people that are homosexual rises and falls in a regular way; or at least used to. My reasoning for this is that during a period when homosexuality is considered bad, then it is likely that homosexuals will attempt to live heterosexual lives; they may marry and have children. This would mean that if there's any genetic element to a persons homosexuality it may be passed on the children. As the population secretly increases the attitude of society begins to change and homosexuality is no longer frowned upon. This means that the need to hide disappears and so the passing on of any responsible gene is reduced. The homosexual po…

Hello, This is important to me. What do you think the racial background of this man could be? he is from the Middle East.

how does having an extra chromosome 21 cause all the characteristic symptoms of downs syndrome?

Could anyone tell me how Fhit works and funtion?

Hi, can someone tell me what is meant by "curated" gene? Thanks.

Mylène Jampanoï is a half French/half Chinese actress. Naturally, she has black hair, fair skin, green-gray eyes, and Asian characteristics with Caucasian tones. What's cool (to me at least) is how versatile she can be with her looks. In photos of her when her hair is brown, she looks as if she's full-on Caucasian, while black hair makes her appear completely Asian (eye color aside). A few days ago I wondered what she'd look like if her eyes were dark, so I quickly photoshopped them brown. Without those piercing peepers, she'd look just like any other Asian. Now it's been said that her father is a full-blooded Chinese. My…

For those interested in the genetics of aging, a recent issue of Nucleic Acids Research is devoted to the topic. You can read the articles free online at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/nar/for_authors/dna_aging_collection.html

Hi, I've been reviewing my knowledge for DNA stuffs, and one thing confuses me ---- DNA polymerization. I thought that DNA polymerization meant elogation of DNA in Polymerase Chain Reaction. I then assumed that this is another way of saying DNA replication. But I asked my teacher for assistance before break, and he said that it's not DNA replication, but rather, the process is called dehydration synthesis, and phosphate and sugar are involved in DNA polymerization. This confuses me because it's contradictory to what I've been reading in my review books and internet. Can someone clarify this for me? Thanks!

Why does [acr=Ribonucleiic acid]RNA[/acr] have 5 bases and [acr=Deoxyibonucleiic acid]DNA[/acr] has only 4? I really don't understand why! [acr=Ribonucleiic acid]RNA[/acr] is used in the replication of proteins (Because it can fit through the nuclear pores and the [acr=Deoxyibonucleiic acid]DNA[/acr] cannot) so why would it need to ahve a 5th base when only 4 are needed to complete [acr=Deoxyibonucleiic acid]DNA[/acr]? There must be a reason why it has 5 when [acr=Deoxyibonucleiic acid]DNA[/acr] has only 4 and [acr=Ribonucleiic acid]RNA[/acr] is supposed to be a simpler form of [acr=Deoxyibonucleiic acid]DNA[/acr] so why would it need 5 bases? This question ha…

This was something from a previous thread. I was surprised to learn that advantageous alleles can sometimes be lost without apparent environmental reason. So, what are some of the better examples of advantageous alleles that have been lost through chance, that is, without apparent environmental cause?

how-old-is-too-old.blogspot.com "The cells that create a man's sperm divide roughly once every 16 days. By the time a man is 50, that division has occurred more than 800 times. Those cells determine the genetic code that will be in the sperm- and every time they divide, there's a chance that the genetic code will be altered. With every alteration comes a greater chance of genetic deterioration that could open the door to birth defects. It takes only 24 cell divisions in a woman's body to produce her lifetime supply of eggs, and those divisions occur before the woman is even born. That may provide more genetic stability for eggs than for sperm." Paternal age linked m…

I've got an outcome for biology coming up and it's going to involve giving responses to questions all relating to genetic carrier screening of cystic fibrosis. My revision sheet mentions things like why humans should intervene if a person is a carrier, treatments, cultural issues, and also looking at both sides of the issue in terms of the screening. I really would appreciate any help in directions to resources people know of that relate to this kind of information. I've been searching madly on google and through some books and alot of what i need to know, but I haven't found much on information on not screening besides things like cost and belief. Any help for th…

So we have a genome filled with endogenous retroviruses: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/03/071203fa_fact_specter My question is: how do they infect the germ line?

I need some help here (cough... CharonY... cough). For my Darwinian medicine class we have to write about a paper about the evolution of an infectious disease. Wanting to kill two birds and get stoned, I decided I should write about my ongoing research project. Now, my research is purely about CS1 pili subunit interaction... not about how they evolved in ETEC. But, I read some stuff in papers about how the CS1 pilus system and its related genes probably evolved as a result of horizontal transfer, which resulted in a pathogenecity island. This transfer was most likely selected for by pressures from the immune system. The problem with this, is that I ne…

Is it true that cataclysmic events can leave a little marker on DNA? I read somewhere that a volcano caused a tweak that allowed us to date its occurrence. If this is true, how does it happen? Hypothetically speaking, could a tweak cause a change in evolution? Make us develop in a different way? Sorry - I don't mean to come across as glib. Forgive me if I'm suggesting a complete nonsense. I'm not a scientist. I'm a writer who likes to play 'what if'?

I have just read that gene mutations can be additions ,deletions or subsitutations of the base sequence. If this occurs during DNA replication How do these new bases form hydrogen bonds with the existing original strand if A only bonds with T and G only bonds with C ? Thanks

Evolution is deterministic, not random, biologists conclude from multi-species study A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundworms. The findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news114700358.html So random changes with natural selection is not reality, but more like a smart change.

hello all,i dont know if this is the right place to ask this question but anyway i want to know if it is possible that a person would be affected by both scikle cell anemia and thalassemia at the same time,although they are both abnormality in hemoglobine beta ?

I was wondering, what with me being kind of impatient, would it be possible to give ourselves a little boost rather than waiting around for evolution? What would be the best way to go about improving ourselves? Should we wait around, or take a more active role? For example, there are a lot of shared structures we have with other critters. We could go hunting among them for improvements. What are the odds that we have the most efficient, say, mitochrondria? If we found a critter with more efficient mitochrondria, could we copy that to ourselves? Might we be able to copy a more efficient protein? What if we fixed the broken vitamin C pathway that we seem to have? T…

we know that karyotype is used for example to find trisomy right? so how we can be sure about it if the sample we take from the fetus or adult may contain more than one cell,so it contains more than 2 chromosomes from one pair,can any one help me ?

I've been so frustreted these past few days because i can't find the answer for this question - why are primers consisted of ribonucleotides and not of deoxyribonucleotides? I know that the DNA polymerase can not start the replication process because they have the proofreading activity, so DNA polymerase alfa start the replication process and adds a couple of hundred ribonucleotides and after that DNA polymerase delta adds on that a couple of thousand deoxyribonucleotides and so on...But why does DNA polymerase alfa add ribonucleotides instead of deoxy? it would be much easier, no enzymes would be needed after to elimniate the primers. Please help me with this! I know …