Category Archives: DNA

In a milestone for the understanding of human genetics, scientists just announced the results of five years of work in unraveling the secrets of how the genome operates.

The ENCODE project, as it is known, dispensed with the idea that our DNA is largely "junk," repeating sequences with no function, finding instead that at least 80 percent of the genome is important.

The new findings are the latest in a series of increasingly deep looks at the human genome. Here are some of the major milestones scientists have passed along the way.

1. An understanding of heredity, 1866

The realization that traits and certain diseases can be passed from parent to offspring stretches back at least to the ancient Greeks, well before any genome was actually decoded. The Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that "seeds" from different parts of the body were transmitted to newly conceived embryos, a theory known as pangenesis. Charles Darwin would later espouse similar ideas.

What exactly these "seeds" might be was destined to remain a mystery for centuries. But the first person to put heredity to the test was Gregor Mendel, who systematically tracked dominant and recessive traits in his famous pea plants. Mendel published his work on the statistics of genetic dominance in 1866 to little notice. [Genetics by the Numbers: 10 Tantalizing Tales]

2. Chromosomes come to light, 1902

But the painstaking work of cross-breeding pea plants wouldn't languish for long. In 1869, Swiss physician Johannes Friedrich Miescher became the first scientist to isolate nucleic acids, the active ingredient of DNA. Over the next several decades, scientists peering deeper into the cell discovered mitosis and meiosis, the two types of cell division, and chromosomes, the long strands of DNA and protein in cell nuclei.

In 1903, early geneticist Walter Sutton put two and two together, discovering through his work on grasshopper chromosomes that these mysterious filaments occur in pairs and separate during meiosis, providing a vehicle for mom and dad to pass on their genetic material.

"I may finally call attention to the probability that the associations of paternal and maternal chromosomes in pairs and their subsequent separation may constitute the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity," Sutton wrote in the journal The Biological Bulletin in 1902. He followed up with a more comprehensive paper, "The Chromosomes in Heredity" in 1903. (German biologist Theodor Boveri came to similar conclusions about chromosomes at the same time Sutton was working on his chromosome discovery.)

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Decoding Human DNA

Don Bishop / Getty Images

Junk. Barren. Non-functioning. Dark matter. Thats how scientists had described the 98% of human genome that lies between our 21,000 genes, ever since our DNA was first sequenced about a decade ago. The disappointment in those descriptors was intentional and palpable.

It had been believed that the human genome the underpinnings of the blueprint for the talking, empire-building, socially evolved species that we are would be stuffed with sophisticated genes, coding for critical proteins of unparalleled complexity. But when all was said and done, and the Human Genome Project finally determined the entire sequence of our DNA in 2001, researchers found that the 3 billion base pairs that comprised our mere 21,000 genes made up a paltry 2% of the entire genome. The rest, geneticists acknowledged with unconcealed embarrassment, was an apparent biological wasteland.

But it turns out they were wrong. In an impressive series of more than 30 papers published in several journals, including Nature, Genome Research, Genome Biology, Science and Cell, scientists now report that these vast stretches of seeming junk DNA are actually the seat of crucial gene-controlling activity changes that contribute to hundreds of common diseases. The new data come from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements project, or ENCODE, a $123 million endeavor begun by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in 2003, which includes 442 scientists in 32 labs around the world.

(MORE: Decoding Cancer: Scientists Release 520 Tumor Genomes from Pediatric Patients)

ENCODE has revealed that some 80% of the human genome is biochemically active. What is remarkable is how much of [the genome] is doing at least something. It has changed my perception of the genome, says Ewan Birney, ENCODEs lead analysis coordinator from the European Bioinformatics Institute.

Rather than being inert, the portions of DNA that do not code for genes contain about 4 million so-called gene switches, transcription factors that control when our genes turn on and off and how much protein they make, not only affecting all the cells and organs in our body, but doing so at different points in our lifetime. Somewhere amidst that 80% of DNA, for example, lie the instructions that coax an uncommitted cell in a growing embryo to form a brain neuron, or direct a cell in the pancreas to churn out insulin after a meal, or guide a skin cell to bud off and replace a predecessor that has sloughed off.

What we learned from ENCODE is how complicated the human genome is, and the incredible choreography that is going on with the immense number of switches that are choreographing how genes are used, Eric Green, director of NHGRI, told reporters during a teleconference discussing the findings. We are starting to answer fundamental questions like what are the working parts of the human genome, the parts list of the human genome and what those parts do.

(MORE: Why Genetic Tests Dont Help Doctors Predict Your Risk of Disease)

If the Human Genome Project established the letters of the human genome, ENCODE is providing the narrative of the genetic novel by fashioning strings of DNA into meaningful molecular words that together tell the story not just of how we become who we are, but how we get sick as well.

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'Junk' DNA: Not So Useless After All

More than three decades ago, 15-year-old Stacy Knappenberger was found fatally beaten and stabbed multiple times inside her Oxnard home. Investigators also suspected she been sexually assaulted in July 1980 attack.

Time and technology finally caught up with the man Oxnard police detectives say killed the A-grade student in the 5300 block of South J Street.

Thursday afternoon, Oxnard police detectives and members of the Ventura County Cold Case Task Force arrested Thomas Young, 65, in Fairfield, Ala., for the murder of Knappenberger. Young was connected to the crime via DNA evidence collected at the time of the killing.

Young lived in the Oxnard area at the time.

We know this is a very emotional day for the family and we hope that this helps in the healing process. We know that they have thought about Stacy every single day since she was killed in 1980," said Oxnard Police Chief Jeri Williams. "Its also a very rewarding day for law enforcement and a tribute to the good work that was put into this case over the past 32 years.

Despite an extensive investigation in 1980, Oxnard detectives developed no suspect information, but in 2000, due to advances in technology, the evidence in this case was reexamined by Oxnard detectives and the DNA evidence was submitted for testing by the Ventura County Sheriffs crime lab.

Williams said in 2010, a DNA hit was made on a suspect through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that contains DNA profiles of arrested and convicted criminal offenders. That suspect was identified as Young.

Following the DNA hit, the case was assigned to the Ventura County Cold Case Task Force. Young was located with the assistance of the sheriffs office in Jefferson County, Ala., and arrested about 2:30 p.m. Thursday under the authority of a Ventura County murder warrant.

Young was booked into the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, Ala., for murder and is awaiting extradition to Ventura County.

-- Richard Winton

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DNA leads to arrest in 1980 murder of Oxnard girl

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Chrome Cats - DNA of a Winner(Official Video) - Video

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KOTD - Rap Battle - DNA vs Eurgh - Video

07-06-2012 12:30 Introduction to three important discoveries in the Starchild Skull's DNA. Each is historic in its own way.

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Starchild DNA Showing "Wright" Stuff - Video

10-07-2012 06:13 CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LATEST UPDATED VIDEO THAT CAME OUT TODAY Subscribe To Get Notified Of The Latest Releases As They Come Out Date: 07-09-12 Host: George Noory Guests: Bryan Sykes, Seth Shostak Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford since 1997, Bryan Sykes, discussed some of his fascinating DNA research findings, including his study of American genetics. The United States' population contains a convergence of DNA from a number of continents, with interesting crossovers such as some African Americans having European genes. According to earlier research (not done by Skyes), Native Americans actually originated from Siberia, China, and even Europe, but the DNA blood testing that yielded these results was done without their consent, and thus raised controversy and ire, he detailed. Interestingly, some people from Britain have been found to have Native American genes, he added. Sykes described his work on the "Seven Daughters of Eve." Astonishingly, almost everyone in Europe has mitochondrial (maternal) DNA they inherited from one of seven actual women who lived between 10000 and 45000 years ago. Additionally, there are "36 maternal ancestors spread throughout the world," he noted. It's suspected that Genghis Khan also established a legacy, with his particular Y chromosome shared among some 15 million males in Asia. The Y (male) chromosome in general has been subject to more degeneration and mutation than the X (female ...

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C2CAM - DNA Research - 07-09-2012 - Coast To Coast AM - Video

09-07-2012 14:15 Behind the scenes on Madonna's 2012 MDNA Tour in Rome.

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Inside The DNA Of MDNA - Video

11-07-2012 18:31 In the past two decades, technology has advanced quicker than in any other time frame in history. From cloning animals to flying drones to androids, science-fiction seems to becoming more of a science-fact. But what if flying drones can take a DNA sample or inserting a tracking chip in your body? RT's Kristine Frazao has more. Like us and/or follow us:

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Mini-drones to take your DNA? - Video

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Animated Health Video Production | DNA Services of America - Video