Ask A Geneticist

To some extent, reading anything science-y makes my head hurt-usually because trying to visualize it and taking in new information at the same time is the ultimate brain multi-tasking for me (and I have to do that a lot!)

Now, to the homework! What was the assignment, exactly?

YOUR TASK: Check out the links below. On your blog, write about the most interesting genetics facts you discover. This is an open-ended response. Write about something you learned.

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=69

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=184

That answers my first question. Ack! Back to the actual links. Am I allowed to mix all the information up or do I have to say what I got from which question? Apparently, one human chromosome is really two chimp chromosomes combined, and 98.8% of our DNA are the same (no wonder why I itch so much- although that could just be really dry skin). What was shocking was that 3% of the genome codes for proteins and 97% codes for... other stuff. Actually, it wasn't really shocking but interesting to know that the actual makeup of proteins only amount for a small portion of our DNA. However, it does make sense: the ingredients list of a recipe is only a small part of making the food. I could take pasta, tomato sauce, and cheese and make regular old pasta with tomato sauce and cheese sprinkled on top, or I could make baked lasagna- two different foods, same basic ingredients. I don't get this part, though: When the human genome project got underway years ago, scientists thought that the big differences between species would be in their genes. It now looks like the DNA outside of the genes may have a bigger role, at least in closely related species like humans and chimps. What, then, are genes exactly? How to make the proteins that make up a trait? But aren't the traits of humans- intelligence, namely,- that differ from other species traits as well? So confusing... Although they do say that genes are the instructions for making proteins, so... speaking of which, what's a genome? My basic understanding is that it's all of the genes, or rather DNA before I get a headache trying to tell the difference, in an organism, not counting the gazillion copies in every cell. (for multi-cellular organisms, that is). Is it okay if our homework assignment is mostly questions? Next link! I understand why we have more than one long chromosome if I don't think too hard, but trying to figure out what the interesting facts are without thinking is proving to be quite a challenge... Chromosomes can be broken and fused together, which is how one of our chromosomes is really two chimp chromosomes (How?). Also, the number of chromosomes doesn't have anything to do with the complexity of the organism. For instance, humans have 46 chromosomes and ferns have a whopping 1,260! (although I have to question whether it's really 1,260 or just rounded for convenience.) The next part, What determines what genes are on which chromosomes, is question land for me! How can DNA be virus-like? Actually, I should say the fact first. The article said that genes started getting shuffled around on the chromosome because virus-like DNA started picking up genes and shuffling them. So, how can DNA be virus-like? Or is it a virus that got ahold of our DNA? I honestly need to stop thinking about that. Also, the article says that gene duplication helps reorder our DNA, gene duplication being that a section of our DNA gets copied and becomes part of the genome, staying close to the parent gene. However, why would the gene copy itself to be part of the genome? Isn't two alleles (Am I doing this right? I wish a geneticist could explain this to us) for one gene good enough? And would gene duplication mean that we would have three alleles for one gene? Or is gene duplication something that occurs in DNA replication? And if so, then why does it say that it stays near the parent gene? And how would the gene evolve a new function- and if it does, wouldn't it be some weird function rather than a useful one? Well, that's my question-laden, confused, and otherwise not very "interesting genetics facts" full open-ended answer. (Well, it's not quite an answer but more like a discussion full of questions)