Tuesday 17 April 2018

Epigenetics And Genes As A Whole

By Carl Rogers


This is the study of change in gene activity that is not brought about by the change in the gene sequence. As much as we get our DNA from our parents, at no point will our DNA be similar to that of other people whether we are related or not because this the distinguishing factor in human beings. It can be used for identification and even record keeping in human genes and related factors. The article shades more light on genes and epigenetics.

In both plants and animals, it is not advisable to cross-breed related ones. This is because it may bring complications despite both parents being in good health. This is usually because the DNA is very similar. The result of relatives coming together is usually offspring that have some defective characteristics thus closely related organisms should be separated.

There is a condition in which organism mutate and form a completely new strand of DNA. It is known as Mosaicism. For example, an embryo may mutate when it only has 8-16 cells. In twins, the two embryos may interact with each other before separating and coming up with completely new DNA strands. Such an organism has patches of different DNA and is known as a chimera.

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.

Many are times when a virus invades the body; it goes on to the cell. When it is integrated, a mutation may occur thus deactivating the virus. The virus, however, remains in the genome and replicates every time the cell is copied. If it is copied into a sperm or ovum cell, then the cells of the embryo will all have the virus thus building an incorporated virus over tome.

You may have looked at a maize cob that happens to have different colored grains on it. The cob has usually not decided to put on makeup. The condition is known as jumping genes. This is a condition where why by various some genes have decided to detach themselves from the DNA strand and may come back later.

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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