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In Answer to David Dobbs’ Recent Question, “Why Bother Rewriting the Genome...
“This raises a question: if merely reading a genome differently can change organisms so wildly, why bother rewriting the genome to evolve? How vital, really, are actual changes in the genetic code? Do...
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Review of the Recent Study, “Increased L1 Retrotransposition in the Neuronal...
Now, for repeat readers, you probably know I have a professional interest in the topic of transposable elements. So it should come as no surprise that a recent article published this month in the...
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The Evolution of Genetic Evolvability
“The hypothesis that evolvability – the capacity to evolve by natural selection – is itself the object of natural selection is highly intriguing but remains controversial due in large part to a paucity...
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The Fragile X Spectrum of Conditions
I’ve talked about Fragile X Syndrome before and its relationship to autism, albeit briefly. What I didn’t touch on, however, is that Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) isn’t the only condition associated with...
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Preliminary Data: Schizophrenia and Brain-related Genes May Have Higher...
We recently wrote and submitted a Letter to the Editor of Neuron in response to the recent article by Bundo et al. (2014) reporting increased LINE1 retrotransposition in schizophrenia genomes....
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“Why Are Some Genomes So F***ing Big???”
Good question. And it’s been asked before. Usually this question arises within the context of “What use is a larger genome?” when we consider vast genomes such as the onion compared to our own. Why...
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“For Every To, There Is a Fro”
Recently, blogger and trend-seeker-outer, Kas Thomas, reported on his blog, assertTrue( ), a very interesting finding regarding trends in complementary trinucleotides in protein coding genes of...
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Is Epigenetic Inheritance Actually “Genetic”?
A new study published late last month in Genome Biology entitled, “Contribution of genetic variation to transgenerational inheritance of DNA methylation” reported on what has been a controversial topic...
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Common Genetic Variants & Autism Risk
A letter was published this month in Nature Genetics by Gaugier et al. which has received notable attention. While many of us may be familiar with rare variants of genes that show strong association to...
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Specific Genetic Enhancers May Have Contributed to Larger Brains in Humans
Though humans don’t have the largest and most complex brains of the mammals (those distinctions go to the sperm whale and the elephant, respectively), the complexity of our language and our societies–...
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