#genome

[lorenzonuti]

Metal Gear Solid.

The Shadow Moses incident.

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[niccymarten]

Whoops 🐭💦

[tridentandtales]

Ancient Egypt Just Got 20% Spicier

Here is something wild from the Old Kingdom:

Researchers just published a DNA study of a body buried in Nuwayrat (Egypt) around 2800 BCE. Turns out this man is 80 % genetically Egyptian, but the other 20 % traces back to the eastern Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia and nearby regions.

The reason this is so unexpected is that up until now, we thought Egypt and Mesopotamia were only linked through trading routes. But this result could actually point to human mobility, long-distance family ties, or migration patterns.

This is the first whole-genome analysis of someone from the Old Kingdom, and it’s essentially saying: 'Hey, your idea of how much people moved around 5,000 years ago?' Too small. Think bigger.

Full article available here

[nopiwan]

"Okay, so around four years ago, I wrote an article on parasites, and in that little piece I dropped a bomb… or well… something I considered a bomb. Namely, that mitochondria (fondly referred to as the powerhouse of the cell) probably started off as bacteria or intercellular parasites that were essentially engulfed by nucleated cells, and have, since then, become an essential component of our cellular structure. Why is this a bomb, you might ask? Well, our science textbooks never told us that the organelle responsible for essentially keeping us alive (through energy production) was/is a parasite we just happened to form a symbiotic relationship with some two billion years ago?! It’s crazy."

Read the full article here:

Former Parasite to Co-dependent Bestie Pipeline

Mitochondria Stuff

[iamthekaijuking]

Long presumed to have no heads at all, starfish may be nothing but

For centuries, naturalists have puzzled over what might constitute the head of a sea star, commonly called a "starfish." When looking at a w

This just in, starfish are a radially symmetrical head with a stomach.

God I love echinoderms

If you told someone that there’s an entire group of animals that develop butt first as embryos are born bilateral but then grow a radially symmetrical head like a cancer in their side that then bursts out and lives as a completely separate organism from its birth form and moves via hydraulic systems…

They wouldn’t believe you. Yet one of the most beloved cartoon characters is one of them.

[afriblaq]

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers identify DNA changes associated with inherited cancer risk

A new Stanford Medicine study has identified single nucleotide variants that are essential to drive cancer growth. The findings could enhanc

Thousands of single changes in the nucleotides that make up the human genome have been associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. But until now, it’s not been clear which are directly responsible for the uncontrolled cellular growth that is the hallmark of the disease and which are simply coincidences or minor players. Stanford researchers have conducted the first large-scale screen of these inherited changes, called single nucleotide variants, and homed in on fewer than 400 that are essential to initiate and drive cancer growth. These variants control several common biological pathways, including those governing whether and how well a cell can repair damage to its DNA, how it produces energy, and how it interacts with and moves through its microenvironment.

Continue Reading.

[reasonsforhope]

More than half your body is not human

Human cells make up only 43% of the body's total cell count, while the rest are microscopic colonists.

This is maybe an odd thing to put on a good news/reasons for hope blog, but I've also had people tell me that they find this info really, genuinely comforting, so I'm putting it up. Also, further understanding could do a ton to advance medicine, esp. re: allergies, autoimmune diseases, and depression. You can read more about this at the link.

"More than half of your body is not human, say scientists.

Human cells make up only 43% of the body's total cell count. The rest are microscopic [co-contributors].

Understanding this hidden half of ourselves - our microbiome - is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson's.

The field is even asking questions of what it means to be "human" and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result.

"They are essential to your health," says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, "your body isn't just you."

No matter how well you wash, nearly every nook and cranny of your body is covered in microscopic creatures.

This includes bacteria, viruses, fungi and archaea (organisms originally misclassified as bacteria). The greatest concentration of this microscopic life is in the dark murky depths of our oxygen-deprived bowels.

Prof Rob Knight, from University of California San Diego, told the BBC: "You're more microbe than you are human."

Originally it was thought our cells were outnumbered 10 to one.

"That's been refined much closer to one-to-one, so the current estimate is you're about 43% human if you're counting up all the cells," he says.

But genetically we're even more outgunned.

The human genome - the full set of genetic instructions for a human being - is made up of 20,000 instructions called genes.

But add all the genes in our microbiome together and the figure comes out between two and 20 million microbial genes.

Prof Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist from Caltech, argues: "We don't have just one genome, the genes of our microbiome present essentially a second genome which augment the activity of our own.

"What makes us human is, in my opinion, the combination of our own DNA, plus the DNA of our gut microbes."

It would be naive to think we carry around so much microbial material without it interacting or having any effect on our bodies at all.

Science is rapidly uncovering the role the microbiome plays in digestion, regulating the immune system, protecting against disease and manufacturing vital vitamins.

Prof Knight said: "We're finding ways that these tiny creatures totally transform our health in ways we never imagined until recently."

It is a new way of thinking about the microbial world. To date, our relationship with microbes has largely been one of warfare.

-via BBC News, April 10, 2018