Scientific discovery reveals that human DNA has begun to evolve – Teach me about science

Scientific study published in a prestigious journal Cell Reports He revealed that human DNA continues to evolve and all through a unique and new mechanism that has never been considered before as part of the evolutionary process, and this has actually been little studied, but it seems to be much more interesting and important than that. He believed.

Specifically, it was researchers from the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Research Centre in Greece and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, who, after a long and complex scientific study, concluded that 155 genes in the human genome have no similar sequences and no other genes exist, meaning that they appear to have arisen entirely from scratch and now play essential roles in our cells.

In this regard, we must take into account that, in general, it has been distinguished that one of the main processes by which a new gene can be obtained is through duplication events in which the machine inadvertently generates copies of already existing genes and which, with the passage of time and the occurrence of certain mutations, it is possible to generate a new gene that can cover an essential function of the cells.

But through the study conducted by the researchers, it became clear that these 155 genes appeared completely from scratch, as their sequences did not share any similarity with any other section of DNA coding.

In this way, they determined that these fragments arose from non-coding DNA, or so-called “junk DNA,” because it was long thought that since these parts of the genome do not contain instructions for coding proteins, then they serve no function. However, it is increasingly clear that they have a fundamental role in gene regulation.

To do this, the researchers in the study analyzed the evolutionary origin of several well-known microproteins that perform a critical biological function in humans. After tracing the evolution of the genes that code for these proteins, they determined that this was a perfect example of de novo genes which evolved from non-coding DNA sequences.

Furthermore, some de novo genes that code for microproteins with critical cell function were found to be strictly human-specific, suggesting that they arose after the split between humans and chimpanzees, demonstrating that human DNA is continuing to evolve.

Finally, another interesting question about these new genes that have acquired an important biological function in a relatively short time, it has been determined that the vast majority of them are associated with developmental defects, while others are associated with diseases such as Muscular dystrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, and Azami syndromeHowever, more research is still needed to identify the specific mechanism by which it is created, as well as to verify how it behaves in the body.

To view the study: Rebirth of functional microproteins in the human lineage.