Daily Archives: October 12, 2012

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Despite its status as a best selling novel and blockbuster hit, it turns out Jurassic Park was based on a fundamentally flawed premisebad news for dinoDNA researchers.

After drilling through some old bird bones, palaeogeneticists in Copenhagen and Australia have discovered DNA can hardly survive 1,000 years, let alone make it through the millions of years that separate us from our reptilian overlords.

Led by Morten Allentoft at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, a group of palaeogeneticists studied many bones from a Moa bird fossil to understand just how feasible it is to clone a Raptor these days.

Weve been permanently plagued by this Jurassic Park myth thats been kicking around since the early nineties, Bunce told the Sydney Morning Herald, reports the Telegraph. The myth is still out there. Even other scientists ask whether it is possible.

Each of the 158 Moa bones were gathered relatively close to one another in New Zealand, (about 3 miles or so apart) were preserved in near identical environments, and are estimated by the team to be anywhere between 600 and 8,000 years old.

After drilling into the core of these bones and examining them, the researchers estimated that DNA actually has a half-life of about 521 years. This means that after an estimated span of 521 years, half of the nucleotides in the samples backbone break. In another 521 years, half of the remaining nucleotides also break, and so on.

Even though half of the nucleotides are destroyed after just 521 years, the research team suggests that, under the best conditions, every strand in that DNA would be destroyed after, at most, 6.8 million years. Further crushing Crichton fans, these researchers also suggest that while this DNA could technically exist for upwards of 6 million years, it becomes mostly useless after only 1.5 million years. After the first millennia (1,000 years), the strands of DNA become far too short to read.

There are many variables to be considered, of course. As soon as a creature, say, a terrifying pterodactyl, passes on, everything in its body begins to die and decay. As cells die, enzymes begin to eat away at the nucleotide backbone of DNA as other micro-organisms speed the process along. Once only bone is left, groundwater becomes the worst enemy of any existing DNA, and though it can be a stubborn contender, DNA, just like the walls of the Grand Canyon, will eventually lose its fight with water. The speed at which groundwater destroys this DNA depends on variables such as temperatures, microbial attacks and oxygen, according to the team of palaeogeneticists.

Therefore, even under the best conditions, Dino DNA simply hasnt been able to stand the test of time.

Read this article:
DNA Discrepancy: Bad News For Jurassic Genetics

They're called discreet DNA samples, and the Elk Grove, California, genetic-testing company easyDNA says it can handle many kinds, from toothpicks to tampons.

Blood stains from bandages and tampons? Ship them in a paper envelope for paternity, ancestry or health testing. EasyDNA also welcomes cigarette butts (two to four), dental floss ("do not touch the floss with your fingers"), razor clippings, gum, toothpicks, licked stamps and used tissues if the more standard cheek swab or tube of saliva isn't obtainable.

If the availability of such services seems like an invitation to mischief or worse - imagine a discarded tissue from a prospective employee being tested to determine whether she's at risk for an expensive disease, for instance - the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues agrees.

On Thursday it released a report on privacy concerns triggered by the advent of whole genome sequencing, determining someone's complete DNA make-up. Although sequencing "holds enormous promise for human health and medicine," commission chairwoman Amy Gutmann told reporters on Wednesday, there is a "potential for misuse of this very personal data."

"In many states someone can pick up your discarded coffee cup and send it for (DNA) testing," said Gutmann, who is the president of the University of Pennsylvania.

"It's not a fantasy to think about how, without baseline privacy protection, people could use this in a way that would be really detrimental," such as by denying someone with a gene that raises their risk of Alzheimer's disease long-term care insurance, or to jack up life insurance premiums for someone with an elevated genetic risk of a deadly cancer that strikes people in middle age.

"Those who are willing to share some of the most intimate information about themselves for the sake of medical progress should be assured appropriate confidentiality, for example, about any discovered genetic variations that link to increased likelihood of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia," Gutmann said.

The commission took on the issue because whole genome sequencing is poised to become part of mainstream medical care, especially by personalizing medical treatments based on a patient's DNA.

$1,000 genome

That has been driven in large part by dramatic cost reductions, from $2.5 billion per genome in the Human Genome Project of the 1990s and early 2000s to $1,000 soon. Several companies, including Illumina Inc. and Life Technology's Ion Torrent division, sell machines that can sequence a genome for a few hundred dollars, but that does not include the analysis to figure out what the string of 3 billion DNA "letters" means.

Go here to see the original:
US panel urges end to secret DNA testing over privacy concerns