Decoding the liver genome understand chromosomal biology

2014/09/10 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Eboluzioa
• Genetika
• Zoologia

The decoding and analysis of the liver genome has helped to better understand how chromosomes are organized. In fact, it was known that the chromosomes of the livers have evolved very quickly and have suffered notable reorganizations, but they had no explanation of this phenomenon. Now, analyzing the genome, they have realized that such notable reorganizations only occur in the livers, to which they owe some of their own characteristics.

The study has been published in the journal Nature. The authors have recalled that the livers are of the family Hominidae, as we ourselves or gorillas, but in the family tree of the primates, their branch is in the place where the monkeys of the Old World and the family Hominidae are separated. Therefore, researchers consider the decoding of their genome so interesting. Information obtained, for example, is helpful in understanding how cancer occurs.

In fact, cancer is related to the reorganization of chromosomes, since in the reorganization of chromosomes it is common to break some genes and incidents in the regulation of genes. They have found that in the genome of livers there is a special piece of DNA that does not appear in the genomes of other primates (LAVA). It seems that this part is a repetitive element that causes the segregation of chromosomes, which would explain why the chromosomes of the livers have evolved so quickly