Genes and evolution - from populations to tumours
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From whole populations to individual cancers, we’re taking a look at genes and evolution. We’re also talking about dogs and their diseases, shining a light on Van Gogh’s sunflowers, and wondering whether the USB-sized DNA sequence is hope or hype. Plus we’ve got our gene of the month - whether it’s Sonic, Desert or Indian, we’ll be carefully getting to grips with the prickly persona of the hedgehog gene.
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Back in 1973, Theodosius Dobzhansky published an essay titled “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” so to start off we thought we’d find out how the gradual shuffling and shifting of genes over time shapes not only whole populations of living organism...
This is about dogs and Epstein-Barr virus, which is type of virus that can cause some types of cancer. And it can also do that in dogs as well...
Another story that I noticed involving dogs and their diseases is about epilepsy. And actually a quite number of different breeds of dogs are affected by epilepsy.
Now they’ve sequenced the human genome, they’re trying to move on to sequencing all the bugs in our gut...
And another story that hit the headlines, the USB-sized gene sequencer. And I think people just went nuts for this. ...
So they were looking at DNA from ancient cow ancestral fossils from Iran, in fact...
Never mind Gorillas In The Mist, how about gorillas in the lab? Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have sequenced the whole genome of the gorilla - the last of the great apes to have its genome read...
Scientists at UCLA have identified around 2,000 genes in zebrafinches linked to singing - more than 1,500 than were previously known about...
Researchers studying hydra - tiny sea-creatures related to corals and jellyfish - have made the surprising discovery that their stinging cells, called cnidocytes, are sensitive to light. ...
Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, scientists in Australia have bred a new strain of salt-tolerant wheat, by crossing in a gene from a more ancient strain of the plant with a higher tolerance for salt...
Researchers in the US have sequenced the genome of particular species of fungus that can turn cellulose into biofuel...
One of the biggest genetics stories this month came from the world of cancer research. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Professor Charles Swanton and his team discovered that different parts of a tumour - as well tumours that have spread to other parts of the body...
Why are there so many different causes for cancer? Most diseases only have one or two causes. Is it all down to damaged DNA?
Hello Naked Scientists!
After an individual receives a treatment of gene therapy, is it the original faulty DNA, or the new corrected DNA, that gets passed on to their offspring? Is it only males that can pass on the new gene, because female eggs are not "updated"?
Thanks!
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If you ask most people what they think of when they hear the words “Sonic Hedgehog”, they’ll probably describe a spiky blue video game character. But ask a biologist, and they might at least pause for a moment, because as well as being the main protagonist of the 90s Sega games,...
They've looked at sunflowers in Van Gogh's very famous painting, figured out there's a tiny little mutation going on in some of the flowers in the picture...
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