A tear-free onion? Could it be true?

• Tear-Free Onion

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Genealogical studies have exploded over the past 10 years or so, and it seems that you can look for correlations everywhere. Well, that’s what happens when you open the floodgates and the data comes crashing through. So, a new study has analyzed the mitochondrial DNA in the black rat, Rattus rattus, to trace its genetic links and origins, and thereby trace where in the world the six different lineages originated and how they spread out geographically in time. They then compared the episodes of expansion in these lineages with those found in human population dispersal, and found a positive correlation.

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It seems that a fossilized fish found about four years ago in the Arctic had wrists, forearms, elbows and shoulders that may have been the precursors for the equivalent arm parts that we humans enjoy today. I enjoy my arms, don’t you? Anyway, it seems that more and more of biology is discovering the great number of genetic similarities that living beings on this planet share, as mentioned in my last post ‘The Tree of Life Gets a Pruning’. One suggestion from the work concerning the Tiktaalik performed by Neil Shubin, professor of anatomy at Chicago University, is that the fin in fish is a refinement of the original, or older hand structure. Indeed, Shubin found that the genes exist in modern fish for this arm development, but are turned off. Clearly, very small changes in genes can manifest as very large differences in outward appearance in living beings. For instance, research has shown that some genes involved in the development of the human eye and vision, are also involved in jellyfish metabolism. How about that? Shubin has written what sounds to be an interesting book on the subject, titled “Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 billion-year History of the Human Body”. You might want to use your wrists for a little book-reading enlightenment.

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‘Genetic archeologists’ (see link below) in Norway and Switzerland have simplified one of the two supergroups into which evolutionary biologists have divided all life on Earth. The two main groups are prokaryotes, organisms that do not arrange their genetic material into a nucleus (bacteria) and eukaryotes, such as humans. The eukaryotes have been divided into four subgroups now, instead of five, which include: plants (including red and green algae), opisthokonts (humans, fungi, amoebas), excavates (parasites and free-living organisms) and the new group, SAR. The acronym stands for Stramenophiles, Alveolates, and Rhizaria (SAR), and has been redefined due to the effort to examine 5000 genes, the largest number of genes from higher organisms to be studied at one time. Of those 5000 genes, 123 were found to be common among them all, and were given extra research attention. This new data forced the reorganization of the eukaryote branch.

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This is a very interesting little story concerning blind cavefish. They are born with eyes (non-functional), but since their environment is water in a completely dark cave, those eyes are unnecessary and eventually atrophy and become scaled over. Scientists have speculated that different genes are responsible for causing blindness in different cavefish populations. This has been confirmed by the breeding of separate cavefish populations, which, in some instances, results in offspring that can see within the first generation. That is quite interesting research, and shows that indeed, different genes are acting in different populations.

• Blind Cavefish

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Ok, believe it or not, I was on to this already. In fact, my father has been telling me about this for a very long time now. And, if you just think about basic biology a little, it makes efficient sense. Females, those with two X chromosomes, are born with all of the eggs they will ever have, and those numbers get reduced over a lifetime, until menopause hits and the show is over. Males, well, they’re like a chromosome tap, something that starts at puberty and keeps the production line of sex cells flowing until death. Since females have a limited opportunity to have offspring, they must be more choosy and careful with their breeding choices, whereas men clearly have the equipment to produce many, many more children. So, from the standpoint of evolution, it would make sense if females changed more conservatively over time with respect to selection pressures, and males would be able to change more quickly to immediate environmental pressures. Hence, females have two, big, fat X’s and men have one X and one tiny Y. Those X’s can act as backup for females, but for males, they have one and only one X, so that is all they get, plus their itty, bitty Y.

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The field of stem cell research is an amazingly fast-paced and competitive one. It seems that in the latest big discovery, two teams have figured out how to get human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. Wow. This route avoids the whole human egg/stem cell issue that has deprived many labs of federal funding. They caution, however, that by using a virus to ferry four genes into the cell, a technique referred to as ‘direct programming‘, there is a certain cancer risk for now, but there should be a way to avoid this in the future.

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It seems that a bunch of scientists got together and decided it would be educational to monitor the testosterone levels in dark-eyed juncos, birds common in North America, in order to better understand the range of their observed mating behavior. Their intriguing behavior involves two, distinct father types for the birds. One type is more dedicated to helping to rear his young and less to mating as many times as possible with different females, and the other is exactly the opposite. Read on for why they think this makes evolutionary sense.

• Dark-Eyed Juncos and Testosterone

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Scientists have found a clever way to estimate the size of the genome for 31 species of dinosaur, and well, big dinosaurs do not necessarily have big genomes. In fact, many of them are in the smaller range, consistent with their descendants, modern birds.

• Size of Dinosaur Genome

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Something I have noticed over the years, with the help of my Father, is that not all natural areas yield the same level of biodiversity. It is exciting to be able to walk in the woods or parks and spot lots of wildlife, such as birds and deer, and see lots of different plants and trees. I’m not sure what the average American plantlife IQ is, but I’m guessing that most folks aren’t that interested in ‘plant identification 101′, or ‘name that beetle!’.

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