Saturday 31 March 2018

Facts On Epigenetics And Genes In General

By Carl Rogers


Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity which is not caused by changes in the DNA sequence. DNA is what gives us our identity. It makes us unique from all the other people. We inherit it from our parents. Thus relatives have DNA that is similar in some ways. The article below points outs of genetics.

It is always advisable to avoid inbreeding in both plants and animals. In most cultures, human beings are not allowed to marry their relatives. The result usually is children having defective characteristics like slow development. However, if relatives have intermarried so many times, and the child is married to a person in a similar situation, the child may be superior for example in physical fitness.

A chimera is one is an organism with patches of different DNA. This may occur as a result of mosaicism which is a process by which genes mutate and form a whole new strand of DNA. An embryo of about 8-16 cells old faces the possibility of undergoing this process. In the case of twins, they may interact and form DNA before they become separate individuals.

Proteins are coded in 3 base layers in DNA. After copying of the DNA, there is the mechanism of proof-reading that confirms the copy is the same as the original. Mistakes can be made in the proof reading although they are rare. For example, in Haringtons disease, there is the duplication of CAG. As the mistakes accumulate with each generation, the disease is worse from parent to child.

There is the possibility of viruses invading the human cells is very real. They can be very harmful if they are not affected by mutagens. Even when affected by mutagens they can be stopped but not completely eradicated from the cell. This means they will have passed on from one cell to another and if they come into contact reproductive cells, the individual may have the virus in all the cells.

There is the case of jumping genes. These are the king of genes that can detach themselves from a DNA strand and later on reattach themselves. These do not have many effects, and the effects are dominant in maize seeds. Many are times you may have seen that maize grains have a lot of different colors. These are a perfect example of jumping genes.

All living things on the face of the earth have a similar DNA structure. These are usually four bases. This is an implication of one of two things. All living things have a common ancestry, or these four bases are the only way that stable DNA can be formed. A slightly altered base structure was fed into cells which were incorporated as DNA. This means that our first ancestor decided on the base structure of our DNA.

There is the possibility of a three-parent babies. An embryo gets half genes from the mother and half from the father. The mitochondria, however, come from the mother solely. If they are mutated, then it could raise problems. This can be fixed by normal fertilization taking place but the nucleus is removed and placed into a new egg that does not have a nucleus.




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