Facts, not Fantasy

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Today's Belated News (June 10, 2009)

Evolution

Here is an interesting report from Science Daily (June 9, 2009) on the woolly mammoth:

Mobile DNA Elements In Woolly Mammoth Genome Give New Clues To Mammalian Evolution


The woolly mammoth died out several thousand years ago, but the genetic material they left behind is yielding new clues about the evolution of mammals. Scientists have now analyzed the mammoth genome looking for mobile DNA elements, revealing new insights into how some of these elements arose in mammals and shaped the genome of an animal headed for extinction.

Interspersed repeats, also known as transposable elements, are DNA sequences that can "jump" around the genome, causing mutations in the host and contributing to expansion of the genome. Interspersed repeats account for a significant fraction of mammalian genomes, and some of these elements are still actively mobile. In humans, interspersed repeats account for approximately 44% of the entire genome sequence. Even more extreme is the opossum genome, where more than half of the sequence is composed of repetitive elements. [...]

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3 comments:

  1. Sorry about the SNAFU. It was sending the blogs to the wrong directory for some reason. All fixed now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I was wondering about that, so I figured that it was a server problem or something. Err... Larian, you have logged-in with the wrong user name again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, yes I did. My daughter keeps hijacking the computer!

    ReplyDelete

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