Rule-Breaker Genes Identified

The battle of the sexes extends all the way to our chromosomes. In some cases, the copy of a gene inherited from one parent shuts down, leaving just the copy from the other parent active and upsetting the classic rules of inheritance. Now researchers have come up with the first comprehensive map of these so-called imprinted genes in humans. Many of them lie in regions of chromosomes implicated in disease and may be involved in problems such as autism and obesity.

Geneticists discovered imprinting in 1991 and now know that defects in imprinted genes lead to abnormal development and to diseases such as Angelman and Prader-Willi syndromes, both characterized by mental retardation. Imprinting involves chemical modification of the relevant DNA, alterations that can be strengthened or undone by diet, toxicants, or other environmental factors. But imprinted genes have been hard to find because imprinting can occur in just one tissue, whereas in the rest of the body, two copies are active, making the gene appear normal. Indeed, until now, geneticists knew of only 40 such genes.

To track down more, geneticist Randy Jirtle of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, enlisted Duke computer scientist Alexander Hartemink and his graduate student Philippe Luedi to develop a computer program that can learn. It improved its search ability by distilling common features of known imprinted genes and contrasting them with characteristics of 552 genes that are never imprinted. One difference is in the distribution of bits of repetitive DNA that bulk up the genome near the gene in question, for example.

Jirtle and colleagues used that program, along with commercially available software as a further check, to scan the human genome. The software predicted the existence of 156 more imprinted genes among the 20,770 human genes. More than one-third of the genes function in development. Several chromosomal regions have relatively high concentrations of these genes, the researchers report online 30 November in Genome Research. One such region, on chromosome 11, has quite a few: two previously known imprinted genes and five unrecognized ones, including a gene possibly involved in lung cancer.

In the lab, the group confirmed that two genes on the list were imprinted as predicted, boosting Jirtle's confidence in the software. Located on chromosome 8, both are associated with cancer, and one, which is expressed in the brain, is implicated in epilepsy.

Geneticist Benjamin Tycko of Columbia University cautions that more of the predicted genes need to be verified as truly imprinted. But no matter what, says quantitative geneticist Jason Wolf of the University of Manchester, U.K., the map "is an important starting point for studies of gene expression and gene functions. It will provide a valuable database for human geneticists."

Like, *PING*, dudes.

Possible use for so-called "junk" DNA...?

Cheers! To track down more, geneticist Randy Jirtle of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, enlisted Duke computer scientist Alexander Hartemink and his graduate student Philippe Luedi to develop a computer program that can learn. It improved its search ability by distilling common features of known imprinted genes and contrasting them with characteristics of 552 genes that are never imprinted. One difference is in the distribution of bits of repetitive DNA that bulk up the genome near the gene in question, for example.

[Rule-Breaker Genes Identified]

The Holy Bible states that the genes come from the first man who fell, Adam.

Romans 3:
8. And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
9. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15. Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16. Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17. And the way of peace have they not known:
18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The Good News is:

10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

One more attack on the right to live by the nazis who hate all agendas other than their own.

How is the use of the greatest gift from our Creator any such thing? Did God give us brains so that we would learn nothing except what someone said we should recite? I read your other comment on this thread.

I believe in the First Amendment and freedom of religion, but don't you see how the secular left gets confused? They can't see any difference between Christians with a literal interpretation of the Bible, which one only God knows, and Muslims with a literal interpretation of the Q'uran/Koran. How is this different from an Islamist espousing the Koran and Sharia law, with the exception that the Koran commands a jihad that appears to mean judgment and physical punishment or killing?

How did you come to equate science and logic with the perverted political philosophies of the left?

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