#genetic code

[thepastisalreadywritten]

In tandem with genetically engineering its three dire wolves, Colossal has cloned two litters of red wolves, the most critically endangered wolf in the world, as part of its overall goal of pairing conservation efforts with its de-extinction efforts.

The company, founded in 2021, has previously announced that it plans to bring back the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo bird from extinction.

It says that its work on the dire wolf is a proof of technology.

“This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” says Lamm, who co-founded Colossal with Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church.

Colossal — which claims that it has now set the record for the most-ever genetic edits in a living species — says it plans to restore the dire wolf as a viable species and secure ecological preserves for it on Indigenous land in North America.

📹 AMAZlNGNATURE / X

🐺🥹🔊

[noosphe-re]

Castro-Chavez, Fernando. (2014). File Compression and Expansion of the Genetic Code by the Use of the Yin/Yang Directions to Find its Sphered Cube. Journal of biodiversity, bioprospecting and development. 1. 10.4172/2376-0214.1000112.

[science-sculpt]

Epigenetics: A Journey Through Inheritance Beyond Genes

For centuries, scientists have been fascinated by the mysteries of heredity and how traits are passed down from generation to generation. DNA, the molecule that stores our genetic code, was once thought to be the sole determinant of our characteristics. However, a new frontier in biology, revealing a captivating layer of complexity beyond the DNA sequence itself: Epigenetics.

What is Epigenetics?

The term "epigenetics" was first coined in the 1940s by British biologist Conrad Waddington, but it wasn't until the late 20th century that its significance truly blossomed. Epigenetics, literally meaning "above genetics," refers to the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur without alterations to the DNA sequence itself. Imagine DNA as the musical score, but epigenetics are the conductor and musicians who determine how the music is played. Through chemical modifications and adjustments to the proteins around DNA, epigenetics dictates which genes are turned on or off, influencing how cells function and ultimately shaping our health, development, and even behavior. Think of your DNA as the hardware: it contains the basic instructions for building and running your body. But epigenetics acts like the software, fine-tuning those instructions and determining which genes get turned on or off at specific times and in specific cells. These modifications, like chemical tags or changes in the packaging of DNA, don't alter the underlying code itself, but they can have a profound impact on how it's read and interpreted.

The Key Players:

DNA methylation: This process involves adding a methyl group to DNA, essentially silencing the gene it's attached to. Imagine it like putting a dimmer switch on a light bulb.

Histone modifications: Histones are proteins that package DNA, and changes in their structure can make genes more or less accessible to the cellular machinery needed for expression. Think of it like adjusting the curtains around a window - open wide for full light, slightly closed for filtered light.

Non-coding RNAs: These are molecules that don't code for proteins but can regulate gene expression in various ways. They're like the backstage crew in a play, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

The Power of Epigenetic Regulation

Epigenetic regulation plays a crucial role in various biological processes, including:

Development: During embryonic development, different cell types emerge from the same DNA blueprint by activating or silencing specific gene sets through epigenetic modifications.

Cellular differentiation: Specialized cells like muscle or nerve cells have unique functions due to differences in their active genes, controlled by epigenetic mechanisms.

Learning and memory: Epigenetic changes in brain cells are thought to be essential for learning and forming memories.

Aging: As we age, our epigenome accumulates changes that can contribute to age-related decline and disease.

Environmental influences: Diet, exercise, stress, and exposure to toxins can leave epigenetic marks on our genes, potentially impacting our health and even the health of future generations.

Epigenetics reminds us that we are not simply products of our genes. Our environment, choices, and experiences leave their mark, shaping who we are and potentially influencing our children's health. This deeper understanding of ourselves opens doors for self-awareness, empowerment, and potentially reshaping our narratives – not just as individuals, but as a species with the potential to leave a healthier legacy for generations to come.

[methuselah87]

My hot take is that even if you can predict, isolate, and delete a genetic condition labeled as a 'disability' (yes they can do that now) that you fucking should not. You should either have the child you created and love and care for it until death do you part or give the child to someone who can.

A disability is not a curse. It is a genetic condition your child cannot change. Deciding to randomly delete shit from their fetal DNA is:

Eugenics (the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable. Developed largely by Sir Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, eugenics was increasingly discredited as unscientific and racially biased during the 20th century, especially after the adoption of its doctrines by the Nazis in order to justify their treatment of Jews, disabled people, and other minority groups.)

Super fucking dangerous. You have no idea what that child could experience because you deleted part of their genetic code. The studies will not be conclusive on the effects of code deletion until the poor kids they tested it on live their entire adult lives and report back. And I'm warning you right now, that shit is not gonna go well. Our genetic code is designed very specifically and we do not know what it could do to the child in the long run without tons of further research.

Stealing. To remove part of your child's DNA? You literally grew that child yourself. Why are you taking shit away from them? Why are you removing part of their identity before they're even born?

A slippery slope. To go from 'I'm just removing my child's disability' to 'I just want them to have blonde hair' to 'I just wanted a boy' to 'I'm just making them smarter' to 'I just want a race of perfectly homogenous white people to rule the earth' to 'I'm just designing the perfect superhuman to be immune from all the struggles of the human experience so they can arrogantly decide that they're a superior being and punish everyone who isn't' to 'KHAN!'

Inconsiderate. Being disabled is not a mistake, it is not a flaw, it is a feature. A character trait. A human experience tied to vitally important ethical, moral, and intelligent insight into dilemmas which able bodied people would never consider on their own.

DISCLAIMER:

You are allowed to disagree, hate your disability, wish your disability genetic code had been deleted, feel conflicted about the situation at hand, be confused, ask questions, do your research, or sympathize with the people involved in the process and decision to do so.

You are NOT allowed to decide for all disabled people whether or not it would have been better for them to be born able bodied and able minded.

You are NOT allowed to shame people for their opinion to respect the original genetic code woven specifically to create them by their biological parents.

And you are NOT allowed to decide that your opinion is paramount, infallible, or singularly correct. It is not.

I personally am glad I was born disabled and have benefited greatly from it. It's been a profound and humbling and fascinating and lonely and haunting lifetime experience that I would NEVER give up just to be able bodied. It made me who I am (obviously) and I know myself (and everyone else on earth experiencing natural genetic life) to have infinite value because of it. I hope that helps.

More here.

[sallyawayfromhome]

[lindahall]

Marshall Nirenberg – Scientist of the Day

Marshall Warrenn Nirenberg, an American biochemist, was born Apr. 10, 1927, in New York City. read more...

[er-cryptid]

Phenotype vs Genotype

Phenotype -- the trait produced by the genotype -- depends on both genotype and environmental factors -- not inherited by offspring -- consists of expressed genes -- dominant alleles can mask recessive alleles -- genotype AA causes phenotype A -- genotype Aa causes phenptype A -- genotype aa causes phenotype a

Genotype -- the actual genetic code of an organism -- codes for the phenotype -- consists of both dominant and recessive alleles -- inherited by offspring -- usually refers to one specific gene causing a trait -- written as a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters -> AA -> Bb -> ee -- dominant = uppercase letters -- recessive = lowercase letters -- both uppercase = homozygous dominant -- one uppercase and one lowercase = heterozygous -- both lowercase = homozygous recessive

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[lethalneuroses]

E | Moira/Sombra/Widowmaker | ~95,000 words | Complete

Sombra gets into bed with Talon and realizes that she doesn't want to get out. Moira stands atop the world and waits to fall. The Widowmaker does as she is ordered, until she doesn't.

Preview under cut.

There was a warm mouth kissing the shell of her ear and then a soft whiskey-tinted breath caressing her eardrum.

“What is it you want, Lacroix?”

Like the roll of the timpani or the growing rumble of the brass she felt something inadvisable welling within her. The word grated against her like it always did and always would, the smug way Moira reminded herself and the Widowmaker and the world of the trophy she had won. The name that wasn’t really even Amélie’s at all, just the signifier of a husband who didn’t love her enough to come home and visit.

I AM NOT LACROIX.

Instead her hand gripped onto Moira’s as hard as it could, her fingers digging into the spaces between Moira’s, the veins and tendons bulging as she urged that hand to dig deeper and harder to scratch like it would pierce skin and muscle and bone.

.

Moira pressed more of herself against the wall to roll one stiff calf and stretch it out. One hand she stroked through Amélie’s hair, thin and silky. The other arm, the one holding Amélie, rested on her hip. She couldn’t hear or feel Amélie’s inhales and exhales. She could only trust she was still breathing.

She did not want the morning to come, did not want to let Amélie back out into the world, but she would. She would let her go as she’d let the cat of her childhood out time and again until it simply didn’t return. In the long nights when she missed its presence at the foot of her bed she told herself it was having an adventure, had found something important, was hunting and fat and happy.

It had probably been hit by a car or savaged by a dog. It had probably died slow and painful by the side of the road.

She would never know.

Her hands tightened. The melancholy crept in, a leaden blanket that offered no relief from the cold. Amélie’s body leached all the warmth she could offer. There was nothing comfortable about it, just the awkward confines of the bed and the stiffness of their bodies. She supposed it was not meant to be comfortable.

.

She was jittery. The music wasn’t enough, had never been enough. Sombra reached for the half-empty bottle of gin and wished she’d picked up weed instead, or something stronger. A bitter tablet under the tongue.

Her hardware was defective at its core, and none of the upgrades she’d made could ever really fix that. She wished the old wish that she was an omnic or one of the simpler machines that she commanded so effortlessly. How pleasant to bring sleep about like the flicking of a switch.

She was better as a human, she always told herself, but damn was it hard to believe that when she was sweating and feeling her hands tremble and wanting to just be asleep.

It should have felt better to get her strings wrapped around her latest friend, but it was hard to feel halfway decent when the videos were still playing themselves in her head.

Dogfighting. Who the hell was still dogfighting? She’d thought omnic-baiting had replaced it, but apparently not. Apparently people still liked to watch and listen as the animals they’d raised to die bit and clawed at each other and barked and growled and screamed and bled out.

She didn’t know dog screams could sound so human. She hadn’t wanted to know that.