Saturday, 29 October 2011

Yersinia pestis genome sequenced

Scientists have extracted Yersinia pestis dna sequences from black death victims from a cementary in the city of london.
The yersinia pestis chromosone is over 4 megabases long.
Yersinia pestis is related to yersinia pseudotuberculosis, an soil living bacteria from which it differs by 2 additional plasmids.
The black death strain of yersinia pestis appears to be the ancestor  of all modern strains infecting humans emerging perhaps around 1340(black death was spreading in europe 1346-1353,spreading from india /china direction )
The black death may have originated from marmots in whom plague bacteria  has been discovered that is similiar to yersinia pestis in humans(indeed yersinia pestis has been called marmot plague in the past).

Sunday, 2 October 2011

Eating plant material can alter gene expression in animals and humans

A research team at Nanjing University in China has found that plant like rice,brussels sprouts and possibly lots of other plants have  genetic material that can survive passage though the human or animal stomachs and enter the blood stream.
MicroRNA, particulary MIR168a andMIR156a  can survive the gut bacteria and digestive system , it was found by the research team in the livers and lungs of mice.
Gene expression was altered in about 50 genes including a gene that lowers cholesterol levels, causing cholesterol levels to rise.
Alteration of human gene expression  by plants might be as old as humanity.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

potato genome has been sequenced

The potato which is related to aubergine, pepper,petunia and tomato has had its genome sequenced.
It has an estimated  844 megabase genome, over 24,000 genes, including over 3,000 snps, 28  kunitz protease inhibitor genes,which respond to pest and pathogen attacks.

The following genes give resistance to potato blight;
rb
rpi-blb2
rpi-vnt1
r1
r2
r3a

The potato was originally grown in peru area,but has since spread throughout the world.
Search Amazon.com for potato genetics

Sunday, 30 January 2011

orang-utan genetics

The orang-utan genome has been sequenced from five sumatran orang-utan and five bornean  orang-utan and indicates that orang-utan split from the other apes about 400,000 years ago,the genome contains  over 3 gb of genetic sequences.
The analysis suggest that the orang-utan genome has undergone fewer genomic rearrangements than the human and chimpanzee genome from whom orang-utan supposedly split about 12-16 million years ago.

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Genetic art and such-like

Some companies like Yonder biology can do a painting of your genes.

Another company called genetic-photos can put your dna on a t-shirt etc.

Sunday, 24 October 2010

Genes linked to the kidneys(not kidney disease)

A gene called FOXL1 has been linked to water retention in the kidneys.
A mutation of this gene was found in 85% of  20 Yoruba in some research done, this version of the gene is believed to date back to the spread of the sahara 10-20,00 years ago.
Search Amazon.com for Yoruba

Friday, 22 October 2010

Paris japonica genome sequenced

Geneticists have sequenced the genome of the rare flower paris japonica which has the biggest genome so far sequenced, there are 149 billion base pairs, the genome is 50 times  the size of the human genome.

Thursday, 16 September 2010

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

apple genetics

The golden delicious apple genom has about 57,000 nuclear genes. Researchers have found out that the domesticated apple's closest wild relative is malus sieversii
Search Amazon.com for golden delicious apple

Friday, 3 September 2010

Chinese summer wheat genome sequenced

The chinese spring wheat genome is five times as large as the human genome.
It is hoped that it will help into research  in developing new types of wheat with higher yields,are drought resistant and withstand climate change.
Search Amazon.com for spring wheat
Search Amazon.com for drought resistant
Search Amazon.com for higher yields

Friday, 20 August 2010

human genes linked to cereal and other farming

A prlp2 variant(helps to break down fats in plant fat) has been linked to cereal eating,occuring  in about 0.5 of cereal eating population,wheras lower in at about 0.2-3 in non-cereal eating population.

TRPV6 variants have been linked to lactose tolerance,aids in digestion of milk.

Populations descended from farmers in europe and the middle east tend to have slower acetylation versions of the NAT-2 genes(whereas hunter-gatherers usually have fast acetylation version of such genes.)
Search Amazon.com for milk

genes linked to oxygen and lungs

Search Amazon.com for epas1 gene
The epas1 has been linked to oxygen regulation,
Certain mutations occur in 90% of tibetans that hand them adapt to higher altitude.
Search Amazon.com for tibet guide
Search Amazon.com for tibet map

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Oyster genetics

BGI in shenzhen says it has sequenced the oyster genome.
There were about 20,000 genes.Search Amazon.com for shenzhen

Search Amazon.com for oyster gene

Friday, 9 July 2010

tibetan population genetics

Variants in egln1, Epas1(90% prevalence) and ppara in the highland population are believed to help  highlanders adapt to high altitudes.
These variants are associated with a reduced blood levels of hemoglobin.
Search Amazon.com for hemoglobin genetics

Search Amazon.com for epas1 gene
Search Amazon.com for tibetan genetics

Jewish genetics

A study suggests Ethiopian and indian jews are genetically similiar to(Oromo) ethiopians and indians,possibly because of intermarriage.
Most jewish population are genetically similiar to cypriot,samaritian and druze population.
Yemenite jews are genetically similiar to bedouins and saudis.






Search Amazon.com for jewish genetics
Search Amazon.com for jewish genealogy

Search Amazon.com for oromo
Search Amazon.com for ethiopian jews
Search Amazon.com for druze
Search Amazon.com for yemenite jews
Search Amazon.com for bedouins

Thursday, 13 May 2010

genes linked to amyotropic lateral sclerosis/ALS

ANG,FUS(also called TLS,)SOD1(accounts for about 2% of als cases),TARDP

Mutation in a gene called OPTN have been linked to als as well.
Atnx2( a polyglutamine protein,linked to tdp-43 toxicity) is a gene found in  about 4% of als cases.
Search Amazon.com for polyglutamine
Search Amazon.com for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Search Amazon.com for superoxide dismutase