Hi Mark, I too was amazed rto learn I had more bacteria cells in my body than human. I now know why beef is more tender if it's been hung for a week or two before eating :) a lot of the bacteria in our body is really useful and it's one reason we shouldn't take antibiotics if we can avoid it. Bacteria in our gut help with digestion, ones on our skin keep it healthy. It's all too much for me to keep track of so I specialise in sequence analysis and try to keep track of anything DNA or RNA related.
I'm not familiar with Trevor, I'm actually computer science trained and now programming for DNA sequence analysis, so not biology training at all but it's fascinating stuff to follow and read. Cheers, Colin On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 12:02 PM, MarkI-ZeroPoint <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi Colin,**** > > Thanks for the very interesting details!**** > > ** ** > > Here is one more interesting tidbit…**** > > Due to the efforts of the *Human* *Microbiome* *Project* (HMP), which > sequenced the microbiota (bacteria, virus, fungi, etc.) living in or on the > human body, they estimate a total of about 1,000,000 genes from all these > different organisms. Compare that to the number of genes in the human > genome (~23,000 protein-coding genes), and one can see that the average > human is a universe of microbiology! The vast majority of genes found in a > human are NOT human! As Colin pointed out, it’s not unusual to find > harmful microorganisms living undetected inside us.**** > > ** ** > > Colin, are you familiar with Dr. Trevor Marshall?**** > > http://www.trevormarshall.com/papers.htm**** > > ** ** > > *“Microbes and Human Disease” **presentation in St. Petersburg June 2012** > *** > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFmAMDdbjs&feature=plcp**** > > ** ** > > -Mark**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* Colin Hercus [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, August 03, 2012 6:01 PM > *To:* [email protected] > > *Subject:* Re: [Vo]:The Fallacies of Darwinian Evolution - Microevolution > vs. Macroevolution**** > > ** ** > > Hi Jojo, > > > I work as a bioinformatician and study DNA and mutations in DNA every day. > I develop software for this that is used in 100's of Universities and we > have over 200 citations on Google scholar. > > Darwin had a view of evolution that we now know was rather simple. > A few things about DNA that I think are of interest: > 1. We have about 3billion nucleotides in our DNA > 2. Typically from one human to next there are about 1 million differences, > most are small single nucleotide difference but there are also large > differences where there will be bits missing (1000 nucleotides or so in one > person relative to the other, around 600 occurrences) > 3. Overall documented differences in DNA at single base level are about 3 > million nucleotides though this keeps going up as we sequence more genomes > 4. Each person born will have about 35 new single base changes (i.e. a > very few but definitely some) > 5. Some mutations result in eggs that fail to grow, some in miscarriages, > some in early death, some have minimal or no effect. > 6. The difference in DNA between a chimp and a human is about 1% or 30M > nucleotides, only about 10 times what exists between all humans. > 7. Sometimes there are large DNA changes, Viruses insert there DNA into > ours, bits going missing during cell division, or bits get duplicated. Once > a gene is duplicated one copy may evolve to take up a different function > These changes can all be tracked between species and over time by studying > the differences in DNA between different species. > They sequenced DNA of Neanderthals (from fossils, DNA left in teeth and > Bones.) Interestingly about 5% of DNA in Europeans is from Neanderthals > rather than early descendant from Africa. > National Geographic studied the Y chromosome from humans all around the > world and has built extensive maps of migration from this by tracking > changes. Interesting that the DNA changes of a few bp per generation fit > the fossil maps and time frame of migration archaeologists have constructed. > I could goon for hours. > > The science behind this is very sound, the evidence is there. I know DNA > is incredibly complex, we are amazing chemical factories, but we are also > full of mistakes and errors that limit our life, that lead to cancer, heart > attacks and various inherited diseases, not counting our disposition to > greed, selfishness, hate & murder. This to me fits the model of random > mutations with survival of the fittest much better than an intelligent > design. > > I think before you take this subject very far you really should do a bit > of study into genetics. Oh and take the blinkers off first. > > Colin > > **** > > ** ** >
