Mystery from twins

Born with eggs, there are identical DNA sets, but not all identical twins and eggs. Why is there such a phenomenon? Although twins make up only a modest proportion of the total population of more than 7 billion people worldwide, the mysteries surrounding them still keep many scientists interested.

The couple Tracey and Davood Bageban (England) are the first couple in the world to have 2 twins on the 27-2 birthday.

To find solutions to these questions, scientists in Australia are conducting a large-scale research project with more than 200 different twins. Among the cases studied, Lucie Kennedy and Julia Kennedy are one of the twins with eggs. These two girls' DNA sets are exactly the same, but the two girls are not exactly the same, there are even many different characteristics and actions. For Australian researchers, this is a new area of ​​science and is called " epigenetics " , in other words " genetic fingerprints ". This finding is seen as an important key for scientists to decipher the mystery of genetic structure .

Dr. Richard Saffery - Murdoch Children's Research Institute based in Melbourne (Australia) - who directly studied this work explains: " Epigenetics as the center for genes. Biology, muscle It is related to a series of chemical reactions and other variants that regulate our gene behavior, it also indicates that the gene is turned on or off, which can make the gene appear Basically, epigenetics controls all gene activity . "

Murdoch Institute scientists are studying more than 200 genomes of Australian twins. Dr Jeff Craig said tests showed different epigenetic signs at birth. Dr Jeff Craig said: " We have measured the epigenetic levels of newborn twins at birth and the level of gene activity that is dominated by these episodes and we have seen couples These births have different things when they are born, most of these differences are from the womb: Some identical twins have the same DNA, but mothers do not believe that twins Theirs is the same egg because they look so different " .

Caroline Kennedy, the mother of Lucie and Julia, said that although her two daughters looked the same, the reality between them was very different in appearance. One is taller, one is longer and curly. Sleep habits and eating preferences are also different. Lucie and Julia are just two of about 77 million twins in the world.

Incomplete statistics of scientists show that the probability of twins is 1/85, the triplets are 1 / 7,000, the life is 1 / 680,000 . In particular, black people have the highest rate of twins (1/100), Chinese and Japanese have the lowest rate (1/500). Scientists say twins are inherited through the mother from generation to generation. However, a number of other factors also contributed to the increase in the proportion of twins like tall women giving birth after 35 years of age, women living in polluted areas .

The discoveries of twins are interesting, in which many twins are kept separate and do not communicate with each other, but growing up still doing the same job, getting married on the same day. However, besides, the notions of people in every country in the world on the twin phenomenon are also different. In Central Africa, parents of twins are considered to be able to influence crops well, gain strength and energy for the land. While many places are old enough to say that in twins, one is a sign of good, the other represents evil and one of two children is removed from the tribe.

Australian scientists say they continue to study these twins for a long time to see if their genetic markers change over time. They believe that studying twins is the key to finding effective ways to treat today's incurable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes .