Web address:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/
071114151513.htm
Humans And Chimps Differ At Level Of Gene Splicing
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Researchers are closer to understanding why humans differ so greatly from
chimpanzees in the way they look, behave, think, and fight off disease, despite
having genes that are nearly 99% identical. (Credit: iStockphoto/Peter-John
Freeman)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2007) Researchers are closer to understanding why
humans differ so greatly from chimpanzees in the way they look, behave, think,
and fight off disease, despite having genes that are nearly 99% identical.
Innovative research from the University of Toronto's Centre for Cellular and
Biomolecular Research has uncovered potential new explanations for these
glaring differences. In comparing brain and heart tissue from humans and
chimpanzees, U of T Professor Benjamin Blencowe and his team, including
graduate student researcher John Calarco, have discovered significant
differences in the way genetic material is spliced to create proteins.
"It's clear that humans are very different from chimpanzees on several levels,
but we wanted to find out if it could be the splicing process that accounts for
some of these fundamental differences," says Blencowe, a professor with the
Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Department of Molecular
Genetics.
"The surprising thing we found was that six to eight per cent of the
alternative splicing events we looked at were showing differences, which is
quite significant. And those genes that showed differences in splicing are
associated with a range of important processes, including susceptibility to
certain diseases."
Splicing is the process by which the coding regions of genes are joined to
generate genetic messages that specify the production of proteins, the key
structural and functional constituents of cells. Splicing can occur in
alternative ways in the same genetic message to generate more than one type of
protein. The new findings reveal that the alternative splicing process differs
significantly between humans and chimpanzees.
The study, appearing tomorrow in the Journal of Genes and Development, could
have implications for the future study of disease in humans and chimpanzees,
Blencowe says.
"Identifying what makes us different can be very important to understanding why
certain diseases affect one species and not the other," he says.
Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment.
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University of Toronto (2007, November 15). Humans And Chimps Differ At Level Of
Gene Splicing. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 5, 2010, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/11/071114151513.htm
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