Today's post comes from Pacific Grove, CA where I have been attending a conference on transposable elements (TEs). Most of you have heard me go on and on about them at some point or another, but for friends from other walks of life, it is probably worth explaining that TEs are mobile pieces of DNA that move around the genome. Most of the time they are unwelcome, but occasionally they modify the host genome in positive ways. They were discovered a long time ago by a rock star geneticist named Barbara McClintock. For about 50 years, they were largely ignored by most biologists-- relegated to the margins as "junk" DNA. Now we know that they comprise a huge fraction of the genome and are super dynamic. McClintock's contribution was eventually fully recognized and she won the Nobel Prize for her work. I could go on and on about them, but I will hold off for now-- preferring instead to share morsels of fascinating TE antics in the genome during future posts.
A picture to share: This part of CA is spectacularly beautiful-- so much so that no 2 megapixel picture can do it justice. On the way down here, however, my lab clan and I stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch and got to ooh and ahhh over the sea lions, a surprising number of which were performing what appeared to be some type of pre-coital water ballet. In an effort to keep this blog kid-friendly, here's a picture of them performing their other favorite activity.....
Today's post comes from Pacific Grove, CA where I have been attending a conference on transposable elements (TEs). Most of you have heard me go on and on about them at some point or another, but for friends from other walks of life, it is probably worth explaining that TEs are mobile pieces of DNA that move around the genome. Most of the time they are unwelcome, but occasionally they modify the host genome in positive ways. They were discovered a long time ago by a rock star geneticist named Barbara McClintock. For about 50 years, they were largely ignored by most biologists-- relegated to the margins as "junk" DNA. Now we know that they comprise a huge fraction of the genome and are super dynamic. McClintock's contribution was eventually fully recognized and she won the Nobel Prize for her work. I could go on and on about them, but I will hold off for now-- preferring instead to share morsels of fascinating TE antics in the genome during future posts.
A picture to share: This part of CA is spectacularly beautiful-- so much so that no 2 megapixel picture can do it justice. On the way down here, however, my lab clan and I stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch and got to ooh and ahhh over the sea lions, a surprising number of which were performing what appeared to be some type of pre-coital water ballet. In an effort to keep this blog kid-friendly, here's a picture of them performing their other favorite activity.....
No comments:
Post a Comment