Category: Genetics in a nutshell
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What makes aging more friendly? X chromosome
Photo: Blueberries, congerdesign, Pixabay The later activation of the X chromosome may enhance cognitive function, which could partly explain why women tend to have longer lifespans. Each of us inherits our genetic background from our parents, grandparents, and even distant ancestors that we may have forgotten. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with one set…
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Paradox of evolution. What can capture and unleash us from Earth?
Photo: Molecules, wastedgeneration, Pixabay A tiny insertion of a highly charged, binding potential helix into the space of RNA after the prokaryote code was lost or removed could change the direction of life’s evolution. RNA is a single-strand of ribonucleic acid, which is more primordial to DNA built with two strands and slightly different bases.…
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Does lack of oxygen in body cells trigger cancer?
Photo: Comparison of the performance of the 70 published hypoxia signatures using the IQM in 104 cancer cell lines, University of Oxford, Matteo Di Giovannantonio, Fiona Hartley Too high demand for oxygen in the body may signal cancer. A decrease of oxygen in tissues’ micro-environment shifts metabolic pathways. Oxygen is a substance without which there would have…
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Human traits. Are they arriving on time?
By Marta Koblańska, January 29, 16:55, Photo: public domain Pixabay Is it possible to catch differences in human genome visible and invisible expression? Modern technologies enable so. And what’s more they can trace our past to millions of years back. Natural selection which is an ongoing process of passing traits from one generation to the…
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The key for domestication. Humans’ capability or plant’s domesticability?
Oryginal date of publishing January 15/2025, By Marta Koblańska, Photo: Pixabay Just 15 edible plants provide us 90 percent of calories while a few hundred have been finally domesticated of the thousands of them. Why? The answer might be eligibility for domestication or humans’ limited ability. As state scientists, University of Southampton, UK in the…
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Global warming is changing our DNA. But it may be an advantage
Photo: Pete Linforth Evolutionary response to climate change accelerated in the past 20 years. But, as Spanish scientists claim, the fact may help in adaptation to ongoing transformation. Global warming becomes a new reality which impacts life on Earth. Now no one is questioning the ecological changes it brings and more and more often they…