Archive for the ‘genetics’ category: Page 370
Dec 18, 2018
Scientists develop method to visualize a genetic mutation
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, genetics
A team of scientists has developed a method that yields, for the first time, visualization of a gene amplifications and deletions known as copy number variants in single cells.
Significantly, the breakthrough, reported in the journal PLoS Biology, allows early detection of rare genetic events providing high resolution analysis of the tempo of evolution. The method may provide a new way of studying mutations in pathogens and human cancers.
“Evolution and disease are driven by mutational events in DNA,” explains David Gresham, an associate professor in New York University’s Department of Biology and the study’s senior author. “However, in populations of cells these events currently cannot be identified until many cells contain the same mutation. Our method detects these rare events right after they have happened, allowing us to follow their trajectory as the population evolves.”
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Dec 18, 2018
Perfect cervical cancer screening results hint at the shadowy role of epigenetics
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer for women yet the leading cause of cancer-related death in developing countries, an unfortunate statistic that highlights the importance of access to screening. Through a comprehensive trial involving thousands of subjects, a newly designed test has been found to greatly outperform current screening methods in terms of both cost and accuracy, while also shedding new light on the mechanics at play.
Dec 18, 2018
The US Military Is Genetically Modifying Microbes to Detect Enemy Ships
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: bioengineering, biological, genetics, military
🤔🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️
The effort is part of a $45 million program across all the branches of the armed forces to figure out military applications for genetic engineering.
Dec 17, 2018
Gene-edited farm animals are coming. Will we eat them?
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: food, genetics, government, sustainability
Society and the government aren’t sure what to make of new techniques for animal breeding.
Dec 15, 2018
Bioquark — Bustle — 7 Creepy Things A Dead Body Can Do — Ira Pastor
Posted by Ira S. Pastor in categories: aging, biological, biotech/medical, complex systems, cryonics, fun, futurism, genetics, health, homo sapiens
Tags: aging, bioquantine, bioquark, biotech, Death, health, ira pastor, reanima, reanimation, regenerage, regeneration, wellness
Dec 14, 2018
Association of Assisted Reproductive Technologies With Arterial Hypertension During Adolescence
Posted by Pat Maechler in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension, sex
There’s a positive correlation of assisted reproductive technologies with arterial hypertension. Epigenetics and hormone treatments with IVF are probable causes.
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been shown to induce premature vascular aging in apparently healthy children. In mice, ART-induced premature vascular aging evolves into arterial hypertension. Given the young age of the human ART group, long-term sequelae of ART-induced alterations of the cardiovascular phenotype are unknown.
This study hypothesized that vascular alterations persist in adolescents and young adults conceived by ART and that arterial hypertension possibly represents the first detectable clinically relevant endpoint in this group.
Dec 13, 2018
New techniques better determine how ancient viral DNA influences human genes
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
For decades after the discovery of DNA, researchers mostly thought of genetics in terms of genes, the pieces or sequences of DNA that encode instructions for building proteins in cells. Then scientists discovered that genes make up just 2 percent of our DNA and that most genetic complexity stems from the vast non-gene code, which influences when genes are turned on or off. Further, half of that non-gene code was found to come from insertions of viral DNA. Consequently, say the authors, genetic variation, and the potential for disease-causing mistakes, occurs in transposons as well as in genes.
New laboratory techniques can identify which of our genes are influenced by DNA snippets that are left behind in our genetic code by viruses, a new study finds.
Dec 13, 2018
Biologists shed new light on the diversity of natural selection
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: genetics, sex
Evolutionary genetic theory shows that genetic variation can be maintained when selection favors different versions of the same genes in males and females—an inevitable outcome of having separate sexes. That is, for many genes, there may not be a universally ‘best’ version, but rather one is best for males and one is best for females. This is known as sexually antagonistic genetic variation, but it might only be maintained under a narrow set of conditions, limiting its prevalence in nature. However, a new study by Dr. Karl Grieshop and Professor Göran Arnqvist, published in PLoS Biology, may change this view.
“One of the simplest ways for sexually antagonistic selection to maintain genetic variation in fitness is via sex-specific dominance reversal, where neither version of a gene is always dominant or recessive, but rather the version that benefits a given sex is also dominant in that sex. So whether a given version of a gene is dominant or recessive to the other will depend upon which sex it is in,” says Dr. Karl Grieshop.
Eight genes linked to red hair have been discovered by scientists, helping to shed light on how redheads inherit their distinctive locks.
The Edinburgh University-led research has been described as the largest genetic study of hair colour to date.
It had been thought red hair was controlled by a single gene, MC1R, with versions passed on from both parents.