What is the Human Genome Project, and how did it come to be?
4 billion or more years ago, the first spec of life appeared as a bubble. This may not seem important, but this bubble wrote the chemical code for life, and then passed it on. This object that was passed on is DNA, which carries a person's individual traits. A DNA molecule consists of two strands that wrap around each other in the form of a double helix, whose sides, made of sugar and phosphate molecules, are connected by nitrogen, containing bases. The Four different bases that are present in DNA are adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The particular order of these base pairs is called the DNA sequence which specifies the exact genetic instructions required to create a particular organism with its own unique traits. Every three base pairs that a person has makes up a gene, and it is said today that a human has approximately 30,000 genes. To many doctors, DNA is considered the personal diary of each person, containing everything that has to do with someone's life,! how they will live their lives, what will go on in a person's life, and how they will die. One problem has presented itself though, the human genome contains roughly 3 billion base pairs. When scientists tried to find base pairs, it roughly looked like
deletion. This is when portions of a base pairing sequence may be erased. This usually occurs with less than 20 base pairs may be involved. Duplications, another type of DNA arrangement is when exact copies of a DNA sequence. Another type of DNA arrangenment occurs is Substitution. Substitutions involve replacement of one sequence fragment with another sequence. The last type is Insertions. Insertions can occur by the movement of specific sequences and insertion into a gene. Examples include AluI repetitive sequence insertion leading to neurofibromatosis type I and hemophilia. With all of these mutations that can occur in the human body, it seems like someone is almost always destined to have a mutation that could occur within their body. But by mapping the entire genome, scientists can say that they can detect the gene of a disease, which gives someone the advantage of early detection. This can be of much use for example, with cancer. It is said that if cancer is r! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ rns. If an entire chromosome is absent, most frequently in Turner syndrome, the disorder is called a monosomy. Structural rearrangements in chromosomes can be detected microscopically by changes in the patterns produced by dye specific staining of chromosomes are said to be chromosomal mutations. There are four major chromosomal mutations. One, microdeletions involve deletion of a small portion of a chromosome, sometimes several genes. The next, microduplications, which produce an extra exact copy of a specific region of a specific chromosome. Inversions is a type of chromosomal mutation, which involves the re-ordering of a segment of chromosome in backwards order. The last chromosomal mutation is translocations. This occurs when a piece of a chromosome attaches to another chromosome. Individuals that have translocations are said to be balanced because they have the proper amount of genetic information, but this genetic information does contain a flaw. When passed ! ecognized early, than it can be treated with more ease and the person will have a better chance of living. If a doctor knows of something before hand, can't it be prevented? In conclusion, to me the human genome project means more to my children than to me. By the age of my death, I am sure that the Human Genome Project would have of mapped the entire human genome countless times, with almost perfect resolution. But to my children, this means almost having genetic invincibilty against any type of disease that my wife or I have the potential of giving them. By then, I am hopefull that scientists will be able to find out what types of diseases a person may have when they get older, and ways to get rid of these before it can do
Some common words found in the essay are:
France Germany, Genome Project, , Human DNA, Insertions Insertions, Human Genome, Genomics DNA, DNA DNA, Celera Genomics, human genome, Research Institution, base pairs, human genome project, genome project, dna sequence, celera genomics, 3 percent, mutations occur, whole-genome shotgun, entire human, entire human genome, mutations occur frequency, chromosomal mutation, 97 percent human, mapping human genome,
Approximate Word count = 1870
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
