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Wednesday 25 March 2015

Gene

Genes are forms of DNA. DNA is a collection of chemical information that carries the instructions for making all the proteins a cell will ever need. Each gene contains a single set of instructions. Half of a person's genes come from the mother and half from the father.

Genes only make up 3% of human DNA.

The word gene is derived from the Greek word genesis meaning "birth", or genos meaning "origin."

Gene therapy is the idea that a particular gene might be infused into the body cells of individuals who are born with a deficient or absent gene.

The first independent organism to have its genome sequenced was a bacterium in 1995.

The first operation using gene therapy techniques was carried out on a 4-year-old girl with ADA deficiency, an inherited life-threatening immune deficiency in 1990. The inserted cells were taken from the girl's own blood, into which researchers had inserted copies of a missing gene that directed production of ADA.

The ENCODE project announced in 2012 the creation of an "encyclopedia" of the human genome, publishing a coordinated series of thirty papers in Nature, Genome Biology, and Genome Research.

Half of your genes describe the design of your brain, with the other half detailing the organization of the other 98% of your body.

Some physical expressions are hardwired into our genes. A study have observed that blind athletes (and blind children) use the victory gesture (raising hands) after winning even though they have never seen anyone else do it.

The redhead or "ginger gene" is recessive and can remain hidden for generations.

With 150 billion base pairs and 40 chromosomes, the Paris japonica plant is the largest known genome. The DNA from a single cell stretched out end-to-end would be longer than 300 feet (91 m).

Paris japonica (Kinugasa japonica) Liliaceae, taken in Mount Haku

The genome of wheat is five times larger than the human genome.

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