The finding implies that some organisms may contain a cryptic backup copy of their genome that bypasses the usual mechanisms of heredity. If confirmed, it would represent an unprecedented exception to the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. Equally surprising, the cryptic genome appears not to be made of DNA, the standard hereditary material.What does our resident Bio major think about this one?
The discovery also raises interesting biological questions - including whether it gets in the way of evolution, which depends on mutations changing an organism rather than being put right by a backup system.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Plant Fixes Its Flawed Gene
This is kinda interesting. All that stuff you learn in basic biology class about inheritance may have to be rethought based on this discovery that a plant has an ability to fix a flaw in its DNA.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As the resident biology expert, this would be possible, but certainly not something that has ever been considered before. And RNA isn't exactly a bizarre place to find genetic information. Loads of viruses use RNA to encode their genomes (most notibly HIV/AIDS) and it has been suggested that the earliest forms of life did the same. The only real problem is that all cells are filled with RNases (things that destroy RNA) so it'd be really hard for them to survive for a long time... Anyways, enough geeking out from me. I promise to post a real entry soon!
Post a Comment