Posted on 03/18/2013 9:04:21 PM PDT by neverdem
The HeLa cell genome is riddled with errors, raising questions about its continued use.
The research world’s most famous human cell has had its genome decoded, and it’s a mess. German researchers this week report the genome sequence of the HeLa cell line, which originates from a deadly cervical tumour taken from a patient named Henrietta Lacks.
Established after Lacks died in 1951, HeLa cells were the first human cells to grow well in the laboratory. The cells have contributed to more than 60,000 research papers, the development of a polio vaccine in the 1950s and, most recently, an international effort to characterize the genome, known as ENCODE.
Previous work showed that HeLa cells, like many tumours, have bizarre, error-filled genomes, with one or more extra copies of many chromosomes. To get a closer look at these alterations, a team led by Lars Steinmetz, a geneticist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, sequenced the popular 'Kyoto' version of the cell line and compared the sequence with that of a reference human genome. The team's results are published in G31.
Steinmetz’s team confirmed that HeLa cells contain one extra version of most chromosomes, with up to five copies of some. Many genes were duplicated even more extensively, with four, five or six copies sometimes present, instead of the usual two. Furthermore, large segments of chromosome 11 and several other chromosomes were reshuffled like a deck of cards, drastically altering the arrangement of the genes.
Without the genome sequence of Lacks’ healthy cells or that of her original tumour, it is difficult to trace the origin of these alterations. Steinmetz points out that other cervical tumours have massive rearrangements on chromosome 11, so the changes in the HeLa cell may have contributed to Lacks’ tumour...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
in other words its a tumor cell
I have to wonder about how good it is as a model of cervical cancer.
Science ping
“I have to wonder about how good it is as a model of cervical cancer.”
My first thoughts as well. 1951?
Thanks neverdem.
in other words GOD put in his 2 scents...of a woman and man
theez doktors with tumors wouldn’t know a rash unless it was an endowment
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