New complexity is discovered in the human genome

Danh Phuong

Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that in addition to the total number of countable genes there is something else that causes genetic differences between more complex and simpler life forms.

Canadian geneticists identify humans with a number of protein-coding genes comparable to those that encode proteins of some less complex organisms.

Mostly, the complexity of cells and increased function can be explained, how genes and gene products are regulated. Canadian researchers have identified a step in gene expression that is thought to be the second, higher-level regulation in a specific way of tissue and cells compared to what we do. Previous assessments and most of this secondary regulation took place in the nervous system.

The second step allows a single gene to identify complex protein products that are produced by processing copies of RNA formed from genes, which are converted to produce proteins.

Professor Benjamin Blencowe, principal investigator said: 'We found that, compared to tissues in other mammals, some important genes work in the same biological processes and signs. It is completely differentiated by the second pairing in the tissues of the nervous system. '

This complex study was published in Genome Biology.

(Photo: Homepage.smc.edu)