Comments - Barbara McClintock RIP - Gaia Community2024-03-28T20:51:48Zhttps://letschangetheworld.ning.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=5313775%3ABlogPost%3A17101&xn_auth=noInterestingly, an episode o…tag:letschangetheworld.ning.com,2015-06-14:5313775:Comment:189842015-06-14T12:23:29.945ZMichael Grovehttps://letschangetheworld.ning.com/profile/MichaelGrove
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<p>Interestingly, an episode of the very latest series of <strong>Through the Wormhole</strong>, entitled <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5955434/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Are Aliens Inside Us</strong>?</a><strong> </strong>suggests that<strong> ... <em>Odds are pretty good that extraterrestrial life exists; </em></strong><strong><em>new research shows we should look closer to home, possibly inside our bodies -</em></strong> which of course refers to the…</p>
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<p>Interestingly, an episode of the very latest series of <strong>Through the Wormhole</strong>, entitled <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5955434/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Are Aliens Inside Us</strong>?</a><strong> </strong>suggests that<strong> ... <em>Odds are pretty good that extraterrestrial life exists; </em></strong><strong><em>new research shows we should look closer to home, possibly inside our bodies -</em></strong> which of course refers to the very latest scientific findings in support of Barbara <span>McClintock's theories.</span></p>
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<p></p> The fact that roughly half…tag:letschangetheworld.ning.com,2015-06-14:5313775:Comment:191472015-06-14T11:27:55.365ZMichael Grovehttps://letschangetheworld.ning.com/profile/MichaelGrove
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<p><span><strong><a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/transposons-the-jumping-genes-518" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The fact that roughly half of the human genome is made up of TEs</a></strong>, with a significant portion </span><span>of them being </span><em>L1</em><span> and </span><em>Alu</em><span> retrotransposons, raises an important question: <em><strong>What do all these </strong></em></span><span><em><strong>jumping genes do, besides jump?…</strong></em></span></p>
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<p><span><strong><a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/transposons-the-jumping-genes-518" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The fact that roughly half of the human genome is made up of TEs</a></strong>, with a significant portion </span><span>of them being </span><em>L1</em><span> and </span><em>Alu</em><span> retrotransposons, raises an important question: <em><strong>What do all these </strong></em></span><span><em><strong>jumping genes do, besides jump?</strong></em> Much of what a transposon does depends on where it lands. </span><span>Landing inside a gene can result in a </span><span class="ontologyTermLink">mutation</span><span>, as was discovered when insertions of </span><em>L1</em><span> into the </span><span>factor VIII gene caused hemophilia (Kazazian </span><em>et al</em><span>., 1988). Similarly, a few years later, researchers </span><span>found </span><em>L1</em><span> in the </span><em>APC</em><span> genes in colon </span><span class="ontologyTermLink">cancer</span><span> cells but not in the </span><em>APC</em><span> genes in healthy cells in the </span><span>same individuals. This confirms that </span><em>L1</em><span> transposes in somatic cells in mammals, and that this </span><span>element might play a causal role in </span><span class="ontologyTermLink">disease</span><span> </span><span class="ontologyTermLink">development</span><span> (Miki </span><em>et al</em><span>., 1992).</span></p>
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<p></p> Barbara McClintock discovere…tag:letschangetheworld.ning.com,2015-06-14:5313775:Comment:190442015-06-14T10:48:18.732ZMichael Grovehttps://letschangetheworld.ning.com/profile/MichaelGrove
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<p><strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Barbara McClintock</a></strong> discovered the first TEs in <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize" title="Maize">maize</a></strong>, <i>Zea mays</i>, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. <strong>McClintock <em>was experimenting with maize plants that had broken chromosomes</em></strong>.</p>
<p>In the winter of 1944–1945 McClintock planted corn kernels that were…</p>
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<p><strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Barbara McClintock</a></strong> discovered the first TEs in <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize" title="Maize">maize</a></strong>, <i>Zea mays</i>, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. <strong>McClintock <em>was experimenting with maize plants that had broken chromosomes</em></strong>.</p>
<p>In the winter of 1944–1945 McClintock planted corn kernels that were self-pollinated, meaning that the flowers were pollinated by the silk of their own plant. These kernels came from a long line of plants that had been self-pollinated, causing broken arms on the end of their ninthchromosome. As the maize plants began to grow, McClintock noted unusual colour patterns on the leaves. For example, one leaf had two albino patches of almost identical size, located side by side on the leaf. McClintock hypothesized that during cell division certain cells lost genetic material, while others gained what they had lost. However, when comparing the chromosomes of the current generation of plants and their parent generation, she found certain parts of the chromosomes had switched positions on the chromosome. <br/><br/>She disproved the popular genetic theory of the time that genes were fixed in their position on a chromosome. McClintock found that genes could not only move, but they could also be turned on or off due to certain environmental conditions or during different stages of cell development. McClintock also showed that gene mutations could be reversed. McClintock presented her report on her findings in 1951, and published an article on her discoveries in <i>Genetics</i> in November 1953 entitled, ″<strong>Induction of Instability at Selected Loci in Maize</strong>.″ </p>
<p><em><strong>Her work would be largely </strong></em><em><strong>dismissed and ignored until the late 1960s-1970s when it would be rediscovered after </strong></em><em><strong>TEs were found in bacteria</strong></em>. She was awarded a <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize" title="Nobel Prize">Nobel Prize</a></strong> in Medicine or Physiology in 1983 for her discovery of TEs, more than thirty years after her research and initial discovery.</p>
<p><strong>TEs are more common than usually thought. Approximately 90% of</strong></p>
<p><strong>maize </strong><strong>genome is made up of TEs, and 50% in the human genome.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></strong></p>