Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,152,157 members, 7,815,033 topics. Date: Thursday, 02 May 2024 at 05:41 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Education / You Use More DNA Passed Down From Your Father (411 Views)
Only 24 Candidates In Zamfara Passed 2017 Nov/Dec NECO GCE / Dead, Retired Teachers, Security Guards Passed Kaduna Teachers Screening – NLC / Finally, Ciroma Chukwuma Adekunle Passed WAEC. The Change Is Real (2) (3) (4)
(1) (Reply)
You Use More DNA Passed Down From Your Father by Eeroh95(m): 6:33pm On Apr 29, 2016 |
You may have inherited your mother’s eyes, but, genetically speaking,
you use more DNA passed down from your father. That’s the conclusion
of a new study on mice that researchers say likely applies to all
mammals.
We humans get one copy of each gene from mom and one from dad
(ignoring those pesky sex chromosomes) – that hasn’t changed. The same
is true for all mammals. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that mom and
dad genes are equally active in creating who we are.
Researchers now report that thousands of mouse genes show parent-
specific effects, and that on balance, the scales are tipped in favor of
dads. Studying whether this imbalance exists in humans could give
scientists insights into the causes of inherited conditions like diabetes
and heart disease.
Of Mice and Men
Humans, mice and many other animals shared a common ancestor some
80 million years ago; therefore, our set of genes are highly alike. Further,
when mice pass their genetic material down to their offspring, the
manner in which genes are turned on or off is also similar to humans.
The study looks at gene expression – that is, genes’ level of activity in
producing RNA, which is the molecule that then goes on to create
proteins and basically make the body function. In this study, scientists
worked with a population of mice called the Collaborative Cross, which
is the most genetically diverse population of mice in the world. These
mice were specifically bred to mimic the genetic diversity found in
human populations.
Scientists interbred three strains of these mice to create nine different
types of offspring. When these mice reached adulthood, scientists
measured the level of gene expression in a variety of bodily tissues. They
then quantified how much gene expression was derived from the mother
and the father for every single gene in the genome.
Daddy DNA
Overall, they found that most genes showed parent-of-origin effects in
their levels of expression, and that paternal genes consistently won out.
For up to 60 percent of the mouse’s genes, the copy from dad was more
active than the copy from mom. This imbalance resulted in mice babies
whose brains were significantly more like dad’s, genetically speaking.
The researchers believe the same is likely true in all mammals. “We now
know that mammals express more genetic variance from the father,” says
Pardo-Manuel de Villena. “So imagine that a certain kind of mutation is
bad. If inherited from the mother, the gene wouldn’t be expressed as
much as it would be if it were inherited from the father. So, the same bad
mutation would have different consequences in disease if it were
inherited from the mother or from the father.”
The findings, which were published this week in Nature Genetics, add a
new wrinkle into our understanding of inherited diseases. Knowing an
imbalance exists in how your parents’ genes affect you could help
scientists treat and predict diseases more accurately.
So, dads, next time you’re showing off those baby pictures, go ahead and
boast: the little one does take after you. |
Re: You Use More DNA Passed Down From Your Father by sweetjune(f): 6:53pm On Apr 29, 2016 |
what about mumcy photocopy? |
(1) (Reply)
Study Abroad / Types Of Salaries / The Emergence Of Academic Contests Among Nigerian University Undergraduates
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 10 |