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DNA 'Knockouts' Reveal Genes Humans Don't Need (sciencemag.org)

Posted by timothy on from the sergio-valenti dept.

sciencehabit writes: Although humans have about 20,000 genes, exactly what most of them do inside our body's cells is still murky. One way to learn more is to find people who lack a working copy of a particular gene and see how that affects their health. Such so-called knockouts are scarce in the general population. But a new study points to a more efficient way to find them: Search the DNA of people from a culture in which marrying a relative is common. The study has found a number of genes that we seemingly can do without, including those thought to prevent serious diseases. And one healthy mother completely lacked a gene called PRDM9 that is involved in shuffling chromosomes during the formation of eggs and sperm. Mice lacking the gene are sterile.

2 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Then again by choke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can remove half the parts of my diesel engine. It'll work .. until the set of conditions that the specific part is intended to address occur at which time it will fail. Sometimes dramatically.

    The human system is significantly more complex than my diesel engine, and the set of conditions that it encounters are significantly more complex as well.

    The thought that ignorance of fact is evidence of fact is appalling. That we don't know what a part does, in no way indicates anything other than our own lack of understanding.

    --
    "No good deed goes unpunished"
  2. interesting but not quite what you think by ooloorie · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Most of our genes don't do much of anything most of the time. But that's true of many things in our environment. Car analogy? I can sabotage your headlights, your seat belts, your rear seats, your locks, your airbags, your dome lights, your climate control, your emission filters and catalytic converter and... you might not even notice until months later. That doesn't mean that those items don't have any function.

    In fact, large numbers of genes probably exist only to be used when you are sick or environmentally stressed. Many other genes give you redundant functionality, or functionality that individually only increases your performance on some task a little bit. Many genes have significant effects only in the brain, where it is very hard to find differences.

    Don't get me wrong: the information that some gene can be deleted without being lethal is useful information. But it doesn't mean that you "don't need them".