Specks of dust on the microscope slide? No, we are looking at the building blocks of our genome

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 06:42:42 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
Interesting new developments in genetic research:

<https://theconversation.com/specks-of-dust-on-the-microscope-slide-no-we-are-looking-at-the-building-blocks-of-our-genome-168784>

"If you look at cells from a human or other mammal under a microscope, you’ll
see big fat molecular complexes called chromosomes that contain our DNA. If the
cells are from a bird or reptile, you’ll see a few of these chunky chromosomes
but also a flotilla of tiny specks that look like broken-down pieces of
chromosomes or even specks of dust.

Those specks turned out to be tiny chromosomes, but their significance has been
a mystery for decades. I assembled a talented team of young genome scientists
to show that these “microchromosomes” are almost identical, and they represent
the ancient chromosomes of a spineless animal ancestor that lived 684 million
years ago."

Share and enjoy,
               *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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