An international team of researchers have reported that differences between discordant monozygotic twins – where one twin has a genetic disorder and the other does not – are probably due to copy number variations.
The researchers studied 19 pairs of monozygotic twins and found differences in copy number variations in DNA. Copy number variations (CNVs) occur when a set of coding letters in DNA are missing, or when extra copies of segments of DNA are produced.
[…]
“This could have a major impact on our understanding of genetically determined disorders.”
“By uncovering these small genetic differences in identical twins where one of them is sick, we have a way of tying specific genetic changes to the genesis of common diseases,” Bruder said.
Discordant twins are an interesting area of study as one twin might develop a particular disease such as Parkinson’s while the other does not. Previously, it was thought that environmental factors were the likely culprits, not genetics.
The theory that a result is more likely genetic than environmental is obvious when you consider the cushy up-bringing, educational opportunities and other advantages that so many Liberals experience in Canada, yet so many of them are still retarded, illogical, weak-spirited, dependent, unappreciative, small-minded, petty, arrogant fools who make the lives of millions a daily frustration.
Such flawed individuals can only be due to bad genetics. It’s nearly impossible to learn to be such a waste of skin.
West: You’re talking about behaviour and personality, not diseases. The former is molded by a complex mixture of genetic potential, initial conditions and environmental (including social) impact. The latter could feasibly be due to genetics almost exclusively.
Not surprisingly, we can’t expect a self-rightarded conservative to actually understand genetics or human development; we can, however, expect them to spout off with partisan bullsh*t that’t not even remotely related to the topic at hand.
Everybody – a big hand for Johnny!!! He made a poopy!!! Yay!!!
self-rightarded = self-important rightarded
Interesting..
“Almost” only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.
Funny how the whole DNA business just keeps on getting more and more complicated the more we dig into it, eh? I remember the doomsayers prophesying all manner of, well, DOOM for the human race over the Human Genome Project.
I remember idiot bunny huggers exclaiming how close chimps were to humans genetically. “Only 2% different DNA!” they howled.
Yeah. Sure.
“….self-rightarded conservative to actually understand genetics or human development; ”
Well, let’s see – by your logic, I never received an honours degree in biochemistry, with a citation for achieving a spot on the dean’s list every year I was in university, because i’m a conservative? And you’re the one complaining about mindless partisanship?
I could school you to the nth degree in a genetics discussion, you anonymous troll.
Anony,
Actually I was indulging in cynicism and marginal humor. Perhaps that is too tricky a concept for you to grok.
As usual, the lefty doesn’t understand the purpose of the Shift key, and can’t spell. It isn’t “anony”, its “Annoy”.
So Mr./Ms./Whatsit, if you can’t grasp the use of the keyboard, what are the chances you’ll understand a DNA transcription error? Slim to none.
Ignore it gentlemen , and presently it will go away.
And here I sit, approaching my 50th, hoping against hope that medical science and genetic engineering will finally get the thumb out and start truly understanding our species, so that I can have my developing chronic diseases of late middle age cured (or at least better controlled than crudely dosing them with pharma chemicals) prior to my death.
My suspicion? The day after I die, they’ll announce the cure for all known diseases as well as the aging process. It’d be just my luck. 😉
Phantom, I do not want to get into a debate,
and anyway I am leaving in a few minutes, but even though the 2% figure might be a little off, most of our DNA has to be the same.
From the information in the DNA required for your body to know not grow a nose anywhere but in the middle of your face , or producing two ears but not two noses, or producing the shape of the ear and ear drum and its moving parts, or producing a liver, lungs, kidneys to producing a complicated structure such as the eye and its moving parts, our DNA is for the most part containing the same information as that of a monkey.
Look at it this way; the list of parts for a 1975 Renault or a 2008 ferrari has more similarities than differences.
The two finished products are different in appearance (although more in esthetical ways than in function) , but they are mostly different in what they can do.
the basic plan is about 98% the same.
an internal combustion engine with moving pistons and valves, a carburator or a fuel injection system as a way to mix air and fuel, a transmission using gears and fluids, four wheels using ball bearing or needle bearings, brakes using friction and fluid pressure, suspension using some sort of spring (coil, leaf or air), a steering wheel. pedals, linkages, seats, winshield, headlights, everything held together with bolts, glue and welding, et cetera…
Little or even minute differences in similar parts gives radically different results but the basic plan is mostly the same in the two cars.
Apart form our intelligence, and a few other little things such as toes and less hair on our bodies, about 95% if not more of our bodies are built on the same plan as the bodies of monkeys.
The fact a minuscule difference in the DNA of two twins
– and who has more identical DNA than twins? –
can make such a difference as one having a degenerative disease but not the other seems to support my view.
Their DNA is probably 99.9999999999% alike but one twin is sick because of that tiny difference.
I believe it is the same for humans and monkeys,
we share more similarities than we like to think, and only a tiny difference in DNA gives us our intelligence.
As I am not a religious man – but still a conservative although a somewhat unconventional one – I have not touched the ” we have a soul and they don’t” aspect because I think it would only make things more confusing and would not help at all.
And I hate offending religious people even though it is pretty much impossible to tackle certain topics without doing it.
Sorry I have to leave now!
Any bets on how long it takes Kinsella to cast Kate’s interest in genetics as a parallel to Nazi experiments?
Give him a day or two and we’ll see it, I betcha.
Humph.
FoU, I was referring to the overheated coverage the Human Genome Project used to get when it was new. Everybody was all concerned.
Then the results came out, everybody was all concerned.
Truth is we had a whole lot of people speculating -far- in advance of the data. Truth is, nobody knows how it works. Not really. We won’t know how it works for a damn long time either, because it is fiendishly complicated.
Tell you something, we don’t even know how the knee works. According to the latest and greatest science I’ve seen, the knee should burst into fragments at every step. That it doesn’t is just an indication of how much we don’t understand the materials or the structure. At all.
Actually I was indulging in cynicism and marginal humor.
No you weren’t. You always talk like that. It’s what you really believe.
I’d love to here a debate between creationism and evolution.
How bought it kate?
Lots of creationist’s here i bet.
The scientist must be lying on this one.
“Spelling” is something you learn in the next grade, I take it.
Hey people, check out this study done on mice.
http://www.mercola.com/2006/dec/7/you-are-what-your-grandmother-ate.htm
Cool, lightning through primitive atmosphere slowly morphs into self replicating proteins on planets that have been morphed from a couple cycles of condensation out of recycled stars … and now another source of variation. Kind of makes intuitive sense that this would occur. When is anything the same or original … oops getting philosophy and science mixed up … but that does have a few interesting precidents.