How Science Is Rewriting the Book on Genes

The Washington Post ^ | November 12, 2007 | David Brown

[neverdem]

Everyone who goes to medical school hears this story at some point.

Graduation day comes and the new doctors assemble to get their diplomas. The dean gazes out and announces sheepishly: "I'm sorry to tell you that half of what we taught you is wrong. The problem is, we don't know which half."

Nowhere has this been more evident than in genetics.

The rules of inheritance, and hints of the biological mechanisms behind them, were first elucidated by Gregor Mendel in the 1860s. Over the ensuing 130 years, scientists gained insight at a molecular level into how biological information is recorded, preserved, used and passed on to future generations.

In recent years, however, many of the certainties gained over that long run are being overturned.

Ever better tools for cutting and splicing strands of DNA, combined with the explosion of data from sequencing the genomes -- the inherited genetic instruction books -- of humans and more than a dozen other organisms, are the engines driving this revolution.

Here are some of the recent revisions of what were once canonical rules of genetics.What Is a Gene?

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule made of four chemical compounds, called nucleotides, strung end to end like beads on a string. The nucleotides are designated by the letters A, T, C and G. In fact, they function like letters, carrying instructions that are spelled out in three-letter "words" -- ATG, CAC, etc. -- never two letters or four letters or five letters. The human genome consists of 3.1 billion nucleotide pairs, strung together in a particular order.

Classically, a gene is a stretch of DNA within a cell that contains the instructions for making a protein. A gene has a section of DNA that marks its starting point, a body consisting of coding sequences (called exons) interspersed with filler...

[neverdem]

They found 22,000 genes, but there are more than 100,000 proteins. How could that be?

Duh, there's a differential expression with some genetic sequences involved with more than one protein. That's ignoring epigenetics and copy number variation.

[2ndDivisionVet]

"Duh, there's a differential expression with some genetic sequences involved with more than one protein. That's ignoring epigenetics and copy number variation."

"Uh, what?!" --GEICO Caveman

[sure_fine]

I got really ticked off when I learned my favorite genes, Levi’s, production got farmed out to korea

[leadhead]

I got really ticked off when I learned my favorite genes, Levi’s, production got farmed out to korea

But we still have that environmentalist: Mr.Greengenes

[sure_fine]

“But we still have that environmentalist: Mr.Greengenes”

sorry to say that ‘ Grandfather Clock ‘ done him in

that was such a violent show, ping-pong balls falling all over and no one wore helmits or safety glasses

hard to believe we survived watching and learning from that show

[ScubieNuc]

What I found interesting is the article starts out saying that half of what they taught the students was incorrect, but they don't know what half. However, later in the article, they somehow KNOW that the complexity of the DNA and protein is the result of randomness (evolution).

Hmmmm.

[ReignOfError]

Wow. Took all the way to #6 before this became a crevo thread. What’s the usual over/under on that?

[metmom]

It’s early. Probably not lots of people up yet since they can sleep in today.

[TruthFactor]

In 5 to 10 years, life as we know it will be turned inside-side out and up-side down. We are entering a new age as we speak that will make the previous technological advances look like child’s play.

[Thermalseeker]

hard to believe we survived watching and learning from that show

Not only that, but I'm sure you probably went outside and played barefoot in the dirt after Captain Kangaroo, just like we did. We played Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, all with toy guns. We built tree houses way up in the trees and always complained when our mother's called us in for dinner. We drank water from the garden hose and swam in a muddy creek all summer. How in the world did we ever survive?

[sure_fine]

I even rode my bike, missing chain gaurds, without wearing helmits or knee / elbo pads

skates boards built from old metal skates pulled apart and NAILED, bending over pointed end, 2x6

all us kids rode in back of PU’s when weather was good

[sure_fine]

it was neat when dad would use cig to burn heads on the leaches so they turn lose we got swimming in those muddy creeks too

[neverdem]

Brain matures a few years late in ADHD, but follows normal pattern

US Among Worst in World for Infant Death

More Than Just a Pretty Face From History

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Grimmy]

But, but, but... I don’t want them to rewrite my jeans! What will I wear while they’re getting rewrote?

[ValerieTexas]

Brilliant comment ... not

[ReignOfError]

Brilliant comment ... not

Are you twelve?

[djf]

Not really news!

I knew a gal in college who was doing the genetics curriculum.

One night she gets pretty hammered and starts ripping pages out of her books... almost everything she had been taught that semester was wrong!

And this was Mid ‘70s.
I think it had something to do with MCClintocks work.

[ValerieTexas]

My contribution to the thread was as worthwhile as yours.

[ReignOfError]

Worth every second it took me to compose it. All ten of them.