Neandertals, humans share key changes to 'language gene' Public release date: 18-Oct-2007 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Nancy Wamplernwampler@cell.com 617-386-2121Cell Press A new study published online on October 18th in Current Biology reveals that adaptive changes in a human gene involved in speech and language were shared by our closest extinct relatives, the Neandertals. The finding reveals that the human form of the gene arose much earlier than scientists had estimated previously.
It also raises the possibility that Neandertals possessed some of the prerequisites for language. The gene, which is called FOXP2, is the only one known to date to play a role in speech and language, according to the researchers. “From the point of view of this gene, there is no reason to think that Neandertals would not have had the ability for language,” said Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The researchers extracted DNA from Neandertal fossils collected in a cave in northern Spain. . [ Print | E-mail. 'Gene Overdose' Causes Extreme Thinness. ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2011) — Scientists have discovered a genetic cause of extreme thinness for the first time, in a study published August 30 in the journal Nature.
The research shows that people with extra copies of certain genes are much more likely to be very skinny. In one in 2000 people, part of chromosome 16 is duplicated, making men 23 times and women five times more likely to be underweight. Each person normally has a copy of each chromosome from each parent, so we have two copies of each gene. But sometimes sections of a chromosome can be duplicated or deleted, resulting in an abnormal 'dosage' of genes. In a study examining the DNA of over 95,000 people, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Lausanne have identified that duplication of a part of chromosome 16 is associated with being underweight, defined as a a body mass index below 18.5.
More. Pests Are Developing Resistance to Monsanto's Engineered Supercorn. Some consumers may have a problem with genetically modified food crops, but in at least one case described in an Iowa State University researcher's paper there's one customer that's happy to consume Monsanto's GM corn: rootworms, the very pest the corn is modified to thwart. According to the paper, western corn rootworms in at least four northeast Iowa corn fields have developed a resistance to the natural pesticide in corn seed produced by Monsanto, marking the first time a major Midwest pest has developed a resistance to GM crops. That could spell all kinds of trouble for food crops, farmers, Monsanto, and pretty much everyone who isn't a western corn rootworm. Though based on isolated cases thus far, the problem could be more widespread, and the paper is bound to rouse another debate on the benefits and demerits of GM crop cultivation and current farm management practices.
The big problem here would be, of course, the widespread proliferation of rootworm resistance. Caster Semenya 2011 World Championships Track | What's the Difference Between Men and Women? | Differences in Sex and Gender. Two years ago, at the 2009 World Championships, South African runner Caster Semenya won the gold medal in the women's 800-meter race. Her celebration didn't last long, however. Citing Semenya's meteoric rise in the world standings, the competition's host, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), had tested her for performance-enhancing drugs in the weeks leading up to the championships. Controversially, it also subjected her to a sex verification test before the race — private information that was then publicly leaked just hours before her final race.
The results of the test were never revealed and, ultimately, she was allowed to run and, later, to keep her gold medal. This weekend, as Semenya defends her title at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea, Life's Little Mysteries asks: How does the IAAF define sex, and does it line up with science? The short answer: not even science clearly defines it. "There is no one right definition," added Fausto-Sterling. Fetal Sex Determination Testing -- Should It Be Banned? The Time-Bomb Genes. When Angela T. enrolled in the genetic-testing program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering two years ago to find out whether she was predisposed to breast and ovarian cancer, it was in many ways the end of a long, difficult journey. For nearly 30 years, she had wondered not so much if she'd get sick but when. Over and over during this odyssey, she'd been forced to confront the most fundamental questions about who she was and whether some inherited characteristic meant her body was destined to fail her.
Now there was a possibility she could get some answers. She wanted to wake up in the morning, as she imagined most other women did, without worrying about lumps, ominous masses, or suspiciously dense tissue. At 49, she wanted relief from a dizzying cycle of more than two decades of mammograms, sonograms, MRIs, breast exams, and biopsies. Every three months it was off to the gynecologist, the breast surgeon, or both. "Why? " Genome at Home: Biohackers Build Their Own Labs | Magazine. This homemade machine from OpenPCR amplifies DNA samples—just like a professional device.
Photo: Justin Fantl is not an ideal space for a high tech biofabrication facility. To get to the one Josh Perfetto is putting together, visitors must walk all the way to the back of his mostly unfurnished house in Saratoga, California—through the kitchen, past some empty rooms, across a den with a lone couch—then climb a poorly lit staircase and round a corner. The room itself is about 120 square feet and has one big window with a view of an adjacent roof. He laughs a little awkwardly, and it’s easy to see why he’s worried.
“I’ve been sleeping in here,” says Mackenzie Cowell, Perfetto’s business partner. And the home audience is their target market. Science is all about coming up with smart ways to answer hard questions. The biohacker movement where they think it will have the biggest impact and they talk about education—being able to do genetics in classrooms. 1 2 View All. THE WORLD - Genetic Testing + Abortion = ??? Will Gene Therapy Destroy Sports? | Genes & Health. The chime on H. Lee Sweeney’s laptop dings again: another e-mail. He doesn’t rush to open it. He knows what it’s about. He knows what they are all about. Sweeney has the same reply for each ding. The coach was wrong. Sweeney became interested in gene therapy in 1988, shortly after scientists pinpointed the gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
It’s inevitable that people will use gene therapy for athletics. For years afterward, Sweeney spent much of his time scrutinizing the rats and mice he had injected with IGF-1 genes. Next up for testing were dogs, which come closer than rodents to approximating human biology. On a visit to the University of Pennsylvania, I ask Sweeney to show me his IGF-1 mice. #52: Courts Consider Who Owns the Human Genome | Health Policy. When Lisbeth Ceriani, a 43-year-old Massachusetts woman, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, her doctors recommended that she undergo genetic testing to see if she carried mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that increase risk of breast and ovarian cancers. She had several risk factors for inherited cancer, including relatives who had died from breast and ovarian cancer. “My dad’s mother wasn’t diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but we feel sure she had it after reviewing her symptoms,” Ceriani says. When Ceriani’s doctors submitted her blood to Myriad Genetics—the only company that offers a sequencing test for BRCA mutations—the company refused to process it, saying that Myriad did not accept Ceriani’s health insurance.
She could not afford to pay for the test herself (it costs nearly $4,000), so she did not have it done. There is only one test for BRCA mutations because Myriad controls the BRCA genes. Genetic testing in oncology - Changing the odds when drugs don't work - Drug Topics. Editor's note: Scientific information from studies released since this article was written have raised more questions about the Plavix CYP2C19 genome connection as it affects some people. Watch for updates in future issues of Drug Topics. Recent genomic research has made many advances affecting the use of drug therapy for cancer patients — especially for people with lung, colorectal, and breast cancer. One benchmark finding, reported at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), discussed evidence that patients with a mutation in the KRAS gene are virtually nonresponsive to the class of drugs termed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors.
EGFRs are part of a family of cell receptors known as human epithelial receptors, or HERs, which play an important role in cell metabolism and growth, desirable under normal cell conditions, but not in the case of cancer cells. Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA. #57: Hank Greely Warns About the Risks of Personal Genomics | Genes & Health. Refuting genetic determinism. Twin studies are pretty much useless. By Brian Palmer Updated Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011, at 3:17 AM ET One of the main messages of science over the last couple of decades is that genes are destiny. With every new issue of a psychology journal, it seems that the portion of your life governed purely by your own free will gets smaller and smaller.
Genes determine 50 percent of the likelihood that you will vote. How do we know? Some call this approach beautiful in its simplicity, but critics say it's crude, potentially misleading, and based on an antiquated view of genetics. The idea of using twins to study the heritability of traits was the brainchild of the 19th-century British intellectual Sir Francis Galton.
Galton's seminal 1875 study of twins was designed to prove that England's "chief men of genius" were the product more of good breeding than of good rearing. Fortunately for the future of our democracy, the study's conclusions far outpace its evidence. These repeats matter.