Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Jump Into the Gene Pool

Only 3% of DNA are coded for building cells and the other 99% were once called "junk DNA"because people think they don't do anything. Recently, they are renamed as noncoding DNA because people find out that they do have their significance. McClintock found out that when organism is under harsh environment, its gene would have an intentional mutation. The genomes that switch place and cause mutations are called jumping genes. This intentional mutation is the organism's attempt to come up with a beneficial mutation to help it overcome the harsh environment. After that, natural selection kicks in and decide if this mutation would allow the organism survive and therefore evolution happens. It was found out that more than half of the noncoding DNA is made up with jumping genes, which correspond retroviruses' DNA. Scientists think that the human DNA allowed the virus genes to hitchhike. in return, the virus genes help human to evolve faster.
Here's my mind map. I also put it on my blog:
  https://sites.google.com/site/randombiocrap/home/jump-into-the-gene-pool-reading-assessment




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