More clues about why chimps and humans are genetically different
2012-08-24
(Press-News.org) Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Tech's Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease?
In research published in September's American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes. The results also hint that DNA methylation plays an important role for some disease-related phenotypes in humans, including cancer and autism.
"Our study indicates that certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins," says Yi, a faculty member in the School of Biology. "Such findings, in the long term, may help to develop better therapeutic targets or means for some human diseases. "
DNA methylation modifies gene expression but doesn't change a cell's genetic information. To understand how it differs between the two species, Yi and her research team generated genome-wide methylation maps of the prefrontal cortex of multiple humans and chimps. They found hundreds of genes that exhibit significantly lower levels of methylation in the human brain than in the chimpanzee brain. Most of them were promoters involved with protein binding and cellular metabolic processes.
"This list of genes includes disproportionately high numbers of those related to diseases," said Yi. "They are linked to autism, neural-tube defects and alcohol and other chemical dependencies. This suggests that methylation differences between the species might have significant functional consequences. They also might be linked to the evolution of our vulnerability to certain diseases, including cancer."
Yi, graduate student Jia Zeng and postdoctoral researcher Brendan Hunt worked with a team of researchers from Emory University and UCLA. The Yerkes National Primate Research Center provided the animal samples used in the study. It was also funded by the Georgia Tech Fund for Innovation in Research and Education (GT-FIRE) and National Science Foundation grants (MCB-0950896 and BCS-0751481). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-08-24
Whether you call it the Flutie Effect or the Jimmer Bump, a banner year in NCAA men's basketball or football is followed by a flood of prospective students.
Economists at Brigham Young University and the University of Chicago studied where students chose to send their SAT scores. Universities received approximately 10 percent more scores from prospective students following a stellar sports season.
Initially, these surges are fueled by certain types of students: out-of-staters, males, black students and those who played sports in high school. But teams who advance to ...
2012-08-24
Boulder, Colo., USA – New Geology postings include understanding the "Mystery Interval" during the last deglaciation in the Northern Hemisphere; examining topographic change and recovery after the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami; asking whether self-mutilation or self-amputation in sea lilies was an adaptive response during the Paleozoic; discovering that powerfully erosive behavior can occur even on the lee side of a topographic barrier; and demonstrating for the first time that the PTB biotic crisis was probably triggered by enormous Plinian eruptions.
Highlights are provided ...
2012-08-24
Tropical Depression 10 appeared more organized on NOAA's GOES-13 satellite imagery early on Aug. 23 (Eastern Daylight Time) and it was renamed Tropical Storm Joyce by the National Hurricane Center by 11 a.m. EDT
When NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured an image of Tropical Depression 10 (TD10) on Aug. 23 at 7:45 a.m. EDT it appeared to have a well-rounded circulation. Infrared imagery indicated cold cloud top temperatures. Cold cloud top temperatures as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius) show strength in the uplift of air that helps create strong thunderstorms that make ...
2012-08-24
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — College football exploits players in an "invisible labor market," and the only plausible way for student-athletes to address their interests is the credible threat of unionization, according to research from a University of Illinois expert in labor relations and collective bargaining in athletics.
Since traditional collective bargaining is impractical for student-athletes, an "invisible union," derived from what labor scholars call the "union substitution effect," could be a viable way to circumnavigate the amateur-professional boundary that has become ...
2012-08-24
Every year, nearly 45,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The odds against those stricken by the disease are truly dismal; pancreatic cancer almost always kills within two years after diagnosis, no matter how it is treated. Even aggressive intervention with chemotherapy, radiation or surgery rarely yields more than an extra month to a year of survival, depending on the stage of the disease.
This raises a tough question: should patients who know they are going to die soon spend a substantial amount of what little time they have left undergoing aggressive ...
2012-08-24
Scientists at North Carolina State University have discovered a phenomenon never seen before in plants while studying molecular changes inside tree cells as wood is formed.
In research published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Aug. 20, the team found that one member of a family of proteins called transcription factors took control of a cascade of genes involved in forming wood, which includes a substance called lignin that binds fibers together and gives wood its strength.
The controller protein regulated gene expression on multiple ...
2012-08-24
VIDEO:
Princeton University researchers designed a "video game " for predatory fish that demonstrated that collective motion in animal groups might have evolved as a finely tuned defense against attack from predators....
Click here for more information.
A video game designed for predatory fish might have unraveled some lingering evolutionary questions about group formation and movement in animals, according to new research that took a unique approach to observing ...
2012-08-24
Cancer stem cells are defined by three abilities: differentiation, self-renewal and their ability to seed a tumor. These stem cells resist chemotherapy and many researchers posit their role in relapse. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Stem Cells, shows that melanoma cells with these abilities are marked by the enzyme ALDH, and imagines new therapies to target high-ALDH cells, potentially weeding the body of these most dangerous cancer creators.
"We've seen ALDH as a stem cell marker in other cancer types, but not in melanoma, ...
2012-08-24
We use language every day to express our emotions, but can this language actually affect what and how we feel? Two new studies from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explore the ways in which the interaction between language and emotion influences our well-being.
Putting Feelings into Words Can Help Us Cope with Scary Situations
Katharina Kircanski and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles investigated whether verbalizing a current emotional experience, even when that experience is negative, might be an ...
2012-08-24
HOUSTON – (Aug. 23, 2012) – A nanoparticle developed at Rice University and tested in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) may bring great benefits to the emergency treatment of brain-injury victims, even those with mild injuries.
Combined polyethylene glycol-hydrophilic carbon clusters (PEG-HCC), already being tested to enhance cancer treatment, are also adept antioxidants. In animal studies, injections of PEG-HCC during initial treatment after an injury helped restore balance to the brain's vascular system.
The results were reported this month in the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] More clues about why chimps and humans are genetically different
