[ExI] Tim May and DNA

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Fri Feb 8 18:36:22 UTC 2019


On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 12:31 PM Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com> wrote:

>

> * > If you look at what percentage of the human genome is conserved
> across  different individuals, then it is only 20% of the genome.*


I don't know where you got that figure, with the exception of the cheetah
there is very little genetic diversity among humans compared with other
mammals, "*All human beings are 99.9 percent identical in their genetic
makeup*":

https://www.genome.gov/19016904/faq-about-genetic-and-genomic-science/

And "*about 60 percent of genes are conserved between fruit flies and
humans*"

https://www.genome.gov/11509542/comparative-genomics-fact-sheet/

But of course only about 1.5% of our genome encodes for genes, that is to
say encodes for proteins.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/09/05/encode-the-rough-guide-to-the-human-genome/#.XF3Ey89KjUI



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> *> Some important caveats however to the notion of junk DNA is that
> redundancy  and mutation are the engines of evolutionary adaptation. The so
> called  junk DNA varies widely between individuals because there is no
> selective pressure to conserve those sequences and so those sequences  are
> free to silently mutate.*


If there is no selective pressure then they can't have a function, and if
they're full of mutations (and they are) then they would be very poor
backups.

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> *I guess I am ok with the term junk DNA as long as one  distinguishes
> between junk and trash. Trash is stuff you throw out  while junk is stuff
> you keep because you hope to find a use for it  someday.*


If can think of any experimental evidence or theoretical consideration that
would lead me to conclude that very large parts of out genome is utterly
worthless pure trash or even in some circumstances detrimental. Doctors
want to transplant pig organs into humans but there is a problem, in 25
different places in a pig's genome there are places where retroviruses have
inserted their genome into the pigs genome, and that could be dangerous if
 a organs like that were inside a human. But about a year ago scientists
used CRISPER gene editing to get rid of those viral DNA segments and
produced healthy pigs:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/crispr-slices-virus-genes-out-pigs-will-it-make-organ-transplants-humans-safer?r3f_986=https://www.google.com/


John K Clark
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