The earliest animals had human-like genes

Mr. McD

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Fri Nov-25-05 09:35 PM
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The earliest animals had human-like genes

Species evolve at very different rates, and the evolutionary line that produced humans seems to be among the slowest. The result, according to a new study by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory , is that our species has retained characteristics of a very ancient ancestor that have been lost in more quickly-evolving animals. This overturns a commonly-held view of the nature of genes in the first animals. The work appears in the current issue of the journal Science.

http://www.embl.org/aboutus/news/press/2005/press25nov05.html

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Olney Blue

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Fri Nov-25-05 09:38 PM
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1. Fascinating! Thanks for the link.

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Oceansaway

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Fri Nov-25-05 09:49 PM
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2. thanks !!

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tocqueville

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Fri Nov-25-05 09:50 PM
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3. I wonder if some lose them during the course of evolution... n/t

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prescole

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Fri Nov-25-05 10:34 PM
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4. All the more reason to take care of our brother/sister species

and our Mother, nature. Global warming is a crime against everyone, everywhere, and every living thing.

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bemildred

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Sat Nov-26-05 09:48 AM
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5. Sounds like we're "more primitive" and "less evolved". nt

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Odin2005

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Sat Nov-26-05 08:06 PM
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6. "Primitive" and "less evolved "are loded terms...

they are not really proper because of our cultural biases. Ancestral and derived features are better.

What this article basically is saying is that some animal lineages have had reductions in the number of Introns ("junk" or "spacer" DNA between sections of a single gene). I am willing to speculate that the reduction of introns has to deal with differences in gene regulation in the ecdysozoan protostome phyla (Arthropods, roundworms, and kin) compared to other phyla because the ecdysozoans have unusual early cell division patterns in the early embryo that is not found in other phyla.

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