laboratoryequipment: Human Genome was Shaped by Internal Arms...

laboratoryequipment:

Human Genome was Shaped by Internal Arms Race


New findings by scientists at UC Santa Cruz, suggest that an evolutionary arms race between rival elements within the genomes of primates drove the evolution of complex regulatory networks that orchestrate the activity of genes in every cell of our bodies.



The arms race is between mobile DNA sequences known as “retrotransposons” (a.k.a. “jumping genes”) and the genes that have evolved to control them. The UC Santa Cruz researchers have, for the first time, identified genes in humans that make repressor proteins to shut down specific jumping genes. The researchers also traced the rapid evolution of the repressor genes in the primate lineage.



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via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1uWm78c September 29, 2014 at 05:43PM