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Genetics Home Page

Here's a list of the schedule for presentation of news items in class.

Genetics in the News

We all know that "correlation is not causation" (and if you don't know that, you'd better just nod wisely and look it up, because if you don't know that, you're either not a scientist or an idiot scientist at best). Well, here's a hilarious demonstration of that truism.

French monks "petitioned the Pope, informing him that rabbits … were actually fish. The Pope agreed" — with line like that, how could you not want to read more about the genetic changes associated with the domestication of rabbits?

Fruit flies love the smell of beer (but then, who doesn't? — besides me, that is). And that's because of the smell of the yeast that gives beer its alcohol and some of its flavor. But what about the yeast? Why would it have evolved genes for enzymes that produce those aromas? As is so often the case, Science may have the answer.

NASA scientists are putting fruit flies in space, taking advantage of the genetic similarities between flies and humans to glean insights into possible effects of long-term space travel on astronauts.

Using modern molecular genetic techniques, and taking advantage of mitochondrial inheritance, a British businessman and a molecular geneticist have claimed to have solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity; it's interesting to compare the version of the story in The Daily Mail to that in The Inquisitor among others.

Nothing's ever as simple as you might like. Despite the clarity and simplicity of Mendel's Law of Segregation, there are exceptions. Some genetic elements are able to get themselves inherited in more than half of an affected individual's progeny; such elements are called "segregation distorters" or "drive genes." Researchers have been using them to try to develop ways of controlling pest populations, with a new and very promising version described recently.

"CRISPR" is a term you may have heard before now, but you'll definitely be hearing more about it in future. It's an extremely versatile genetic technique for modifying genomes, and not only does it work in vivo, but researchers have recently used it to modify mice with a form of muscular dystrophy, significantly reducing their symptoms. In the not-too-distant future, genetic diseases in humans may be treatable in a similar way, diseases which have stalked us pretty much since there was an "us" — powerful stuff.

The ability to rapidly sequence and analyze entire genomes is enabling us to much more quickly and effectively deal with disease outbreaks. The recent emergence of Ebola in west Africa has enabled geneticists to study the pattern of viral spread, determine where it began and how it is changing as it moves from person to person. This has the potential to affect both clinical testing and vaccine development.

Women are just better. We all know it (though not many are willing to say so, for fear of hurting men's delicate sensibilities), and here's some more evidence: although women seem to carry more mutations associated with abnormal development of the nervous system, they also appear to be less affected by them. Men are just weaker; deal with it, ya crybabies! (And there's an interesting hypothesis developed recently explaining why men die younger than women, and not just because of testosterone-induced stupidity.)

And genetically, what makes men different from women developmentally? Not much, it seems. A very small region of the Y chromosome, called SRY, is enough to turn females into what look like males. The natural follow-up question? What happens when you remove SRY from males?

Bananas are grown clonally: new plants start out as cuttings of old ones. As a result, there is almost no genetic diversity among commercially-grown bananas. And this is a problem for any species, because it makes them more susceptible to disease. And this is exactly what's threatening the world's banana supply today.

There are 3 billion basepairs in the human genome, which contains roughly 35,000 genes (it's hard to be exact for a lot of reasons, which we'll talk about as the course progresses). For at least some blonds, their hair color arose as the result of a single one of those 3 billion bases changing.

Never let it be said that geneticists aren't concerned about making the world a better place. The first line of this story says it all: " Researchers have created a mutant worm that can never get drunk."

Would you expect that, if you were to study your genes and those of your friends, your genes would be more alike than expected by random chance? It's not like you're related (probably) to them. In some ways this would be surprising, but it's just what researchers have discovered.

Most people wouldn't be surprised to learn that while success in athletics depends not only on training and perseverance, but also on your genes: some people are born with innate advantages in certain sports. It might be more surprising to learn that the same is true for musicians.

Two things: one, even professionals make mistakes. Two, Statistics is Real Important. (read more)

From a few years ago: "Word that genetic researchers had discovered a cell of rice contains more genes than a human cell caused widespread outrage as people across the globe attempted to prove that humans are easily as smart as a grain of rice." (read more)

Study Aids

Promega is a major bioreagent supplier, and they have a number of helpful videos available, including one on the basics of PCR.

The DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a number of good animations of molecular genetic techniques, including ones for gel electrophoresis, PCR, and cycle DNA sequencing.

There are several good animations of molecular processes online, including several from Prof. John Giannini at St. Olaf College, including DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Another animation of transcription is at biostudio.com.

In a somewhat lighter vein, here's a link to a classic comparison of genetic and biochemical approaches to a problem.

Classes

Lectures will be held in PPHAC 102
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 7:30 am to 8:40 am

Lab

Lab meets in Room 302, Collier Hall of Science

Monday afternoons from 1:15 to 4:15
Wednesday afternoons from 1:15 to 4:15
Thursday afternoons from 12:45 to 3:45
Friday afternoons from 1:15 to 4:15

Text

The text required for this course is the 6th edition of Essential Genetics: A Genomics Perspective, by Daniel Hartl, published by Jones & Bartlett (2014).