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Monthly Archives: January 2015

PSA on Limb Development

Limb malformation is an important model of gene expression control during the development of an embryo. These diseases are generally a result of a mutation in the DNA which causes some genes to be expressed too much or too little. For an example, if there is too much expression of a certain gene, you may end up with more than five fingers on one hand. Limb development is a good model system to study because it is easy to identify what went wrong during development. For instance, each finger on our hand is different from one another. These differences are due to the different genes being expressed at different locations and time when the baby is developing inside their mother. If we compare the DNA of a patient without thumbs to a normal person, we may be able to find the genes responsible for developing thumbs through the differences in their DNA. It is important to study these diseases to understand how normal limb development works. This allows us to understand what mutations are causing these diseases and by looking for these mutations in a person’s DNA, you may be able to inform potential parents about having children with these deformities. Studying limb development can help researchers find what elements in the DNA are responsible for malformations and can improve methods to identify these elements.

Note: It was difficult to identify what is truly important for the general public to know. There needs to be a balance between being detailed enough to be able to explain my points and not going too in depth which you would need a biology background to understand.

Learning Journal 1 Week 2

A. Factual knowledge

  1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the course.I learned that cleavage is a stage of development where cells of an embryo divide but they do not grow in size. This means that there will be many more cells but the total size will remain the same.

 

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of factual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.I have heard of this term before and I knew it was a stage in development of an embryo. From a previous class, I only remembered this term as the division of cells. I did not however remember that cleavage had a more specific meaning. I learned that the cells divide but I did not know that the cells did not grow which means the embryo stays about the same size throughout this stage. Now I am more aware that cleavage means more than just a division of cells.

 B. Conceptual knowledge

  1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of conceptual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the course.I learned that enhancers and silencers cannot be determined by the DNA sequence alone; they may have different effects depending on the protein that bind to these regions of the DNA. In one cell, a protein that binds to this region may increase gene expression (enhancer), while in another cell, a different protein that binds to this same region may decrease gene expression (silencer).

 

 

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of conceptual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.I now understand that I cannot say an enhancer is an enhancer for across all cells. A method of classifying these regulatory regions is through experiments. You must test if this region increases or decreases gene expression in order classify them as enhancers or silencers. A better term for these parts of the DNA is regulatory regions since this is a more neutral term. I am now aware that I cannot just assume that an enhancer would act like an enhancer in a different cell type.

C. Skills

  1. Please describe, briefly, one skill that you acquired or developed/are developing so far in the course.Although it is not in this course, I have learned how to make concept sketches in my EOSC 112 course. By drawing and annotating, you can connect key points together visually in order to make a concept map of things learned in class. There is an emphasis on finding and drawing relationships between different points taught in class.

 

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this skill, and provide some evidence for it.At the beginning, I was struggling to grasp what I am asked to draw for a concept sketch. I found it difficult to identify key points to include in my sketch. When I saw what concepts could be included, I started to see how to map things together. I usually do this in my head just when I am studying. However, this is the first time where I have physically drawn this map out. I found this to be an interesting way to lay out my ideas and also to reinforce relationship between points. I believe that it helps remember facts and concept when I have tied two together through a connection. I believe I can apply this to my other classes and I will continue to develop my skills to draw out a concept sketch.

If I were a developmental biologist/geneticist…

…these would be the questions I would like to study:

1) What genes are involved in determining the differences in personalities of identical twins brought up in the same environment? (i.e. what differences in their epigenomes lead to their differences in personality?)

2) What factors from the environment would cause epigenetic changes to an individual? How would these changes effect an individual?

I am more interested in trying to answer question #1.

The phenomenon of having a pair of identical twins yet they are slightly different from each other intrigues me. Specifically, I am curious to see if there are any specific part of the genome that contribute to personality differences. A pair of identical twins have the same exact genome, yet they do have not have the exact same appearance or personality. I am curious in what causes these differences and some of these factors maybe hidden within the epigenomes of each twin.

Through studying identical twins, a researcher maybe able to pinpoint certain parts of the genome that have epigenetic modifications. If they see a pattern in these modifications across many sets of identical twins, perhaps we can understand what causes the differences in personality. From learning about this, we could potentially predict behaviours and personalities based on these regions of the genome and their epigenetic modifications. We could potentially find drug targets to treat people with aggressive behaviours.

Although this seems a little far-fetched, but I believe we currently have the technology to search for these differences. With the better technology, we can find these epigenetic modifications quicker as well as having more powerful computers and better programs to screen for these differences.

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