What Cheetahs, Armadillos and Whales Revealed About Human DNA

     For over ten years, scientists have been able to compare and contrast the genomes of over 200 mammals with humans. Mammals are known to be one of the most diverse classes of animals. It has been about two decades since some scientists made the rough draft of the human genome. Scientists today still have difficulty deciphering the genome.  By uncovering this evolution of the genome for over 100 million years, there is something called the Zoonomia project. 

    The Zoonomia project is an international project that uncovers the genomic traits of mammals. Zoonomia uses DNA sequence technology to comprehend how genomes create a huge amount of diversity. The name Zoonomia comes from the Greek words that mean "animal" and "governing laws". The word Zoonomia first appeared in 1794, by Erasmus Darwin, who was the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Erasmus Darwin has a book titled "Zoonomia; or Laws of Organic Life". 

                        This is a picture of a human DNA strand using transmission electron microscopy. 

References: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/science/human-dna-genomes.html

https://zoonomiaproject.org/the-project/

Bats Don't Get Cancer, and Scientists Are Closer to Understanding Why

 

One of the worlds most under looked animals has it own super powers. Bats have the ability to avoid cancer and handle infections which would devastate others. The key to understanding these abilities is found in their genetic make up.

In a recent study conducted by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, analyzing bat genomes and comparing them to other mammals have allowed anticancer and antiviral genes to be found. The hopes of these findings is to in a way translate it into helping humans. 

Bats are extraordinary animals. They are known for having a long life spans, strong immune systems, and have low cancer rates. There immune systems are so resilient that they have allowed them to become a vector species as they can tolerate viruses without being effected by them. This has given them a bad reputation in the eyes of society. 

In this study 2 types of bat species genomes were sequenced. The Jamaican Fruit Bat and the Mesoamerican Mustache bat. Next comprehensive comparative genomic analysis was conducted comparing these genomes to other bats and mammals. The results were shocking. Noted were specific adaptations in six DNA repair-related proteins and 46 cancer-suppression proteins in bats. In comparing these genomes to other mammals bats were found to have twice as many cancer related genes. 

The hopes of this study is to further understand the bats cancer resistant genes linking to immunity and their immune system resilience. The goal is to help prevent cross-species disease jumps from animals to people by using bat immune system findings and to better understand the link between cancer and immune systems and possibly find a way to prevent it. 

I find this truly amazing. I personally have always loved bats and felt bad for the bad reputation they get for being vector species. But learning more and looking further into just why the make such good vector species and how they may help humans in the future I hope it will change society view about them. 

Links:

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-09-20/bats-dont-get-cancer-and-scientists-are-closer-to-understanding-why

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-bats-have-outsmarted-viruses-including-coronaviruses-65-million-years

AI tool detects health-threatening genetic variants in vast haystacks.

Scientists have developed a way to sift through a person's genetic blueprint to find disease-causing variants. An issue that has frustrated doctors is that each human has an average of 4 million variants, sections of genetic code where we are different. Kyle Farh is the vice president of AI at the biotechnology company Illumina, where he and his team created an algorithm called PrimateAI-3D, using the genetic blueprints of 233 different primate species. The scientist looks for areas where the sequence is the same from one primate to another, which is a sign that any change is a problem. The new AI algorithm has a selection 1000 times as large as the archive used in most hospitals, ClinVar. PrimateAI-3D shows the three-dimensional structure of proteins, which can distinguish which mutations are harmful. 

They have tested the new tool on a biomedical database of more than 450,000 people in the United Kingdom’s Biobank. They found 97% of the population carried a rare variant that has an effect on health. With this new tool, they are able to predict health factors from the genome. Genomes are codes made up of four different chemical bases that build up DNA. One genome comprises approximately 3,200,000,000 nucleotides of DNA. In my opinion, having an AI model for something so complicated makes a lot of sense, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t implemented before. Machines have been running code in computer systems and figuring out the coordinates that send astronauts to space for decades. I think using artificial intelligence in this fashion is a great way to utilize the resources that are taking over many aspects of our daily lives.