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Join commentators Dave Micklos and
Jan Witkowski for a lively discussion of DNA in the news from world-renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory! Subscribe: Subscribe directly using your preferred podcasting tool:   or, copy and paste this URL into a podcasting tool: 
See DNA Today on  DNA Today Archive: From dinosaur DNA to monkey's uncles, we've stored previous episodes here. |
 Episode
4: No Escape for GM Pollen?Little chance that genetic modifications to chloroplasts are transferred by pollen to wild plants. Watch this episode now! Duration: 3 minutes, 29 seconds Critics of genetically modified (GM) crops worry that herbicide resistance genes could be transferred to wild plants in pollen blown from a field of GM plants. Now researchers have shown that GM genes carried in maternally inherited chloroplasts are rarely transferred through pollen to other plants. "Determining the Transgene Containment Level Provided by Chloroplast Transformation" by Stephanie Ruf, Daniel Karcher, and Ralph Bock, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (volume 104), April 24, 2007, pages 6998-7002. POSTED May 10, 2007 Episode 3: The Real Monkey's Uncle Marmoset monkeys sometimes father their twin brother's children with DNA they swapped as embryos. Watch this episode now! Duration: 3 minutes, 19 seconds Marmosets are almost always born as fraternal twins that share a common placenta. Cells exchanged during embryonic development make each sibling a "chimera" with a mixture of its own and its sibling's cells. DNA testing recently showed that about half of male marmosets also carry a mixture of sperm cells, so a marmoset baby can actually inherit its uncle's DNA from its own father. "Germ-line Chimerism and Paternal Care in Marmosets (Cllithrix kuhlii)" by C.N. Ross, J.A. French, and G. Orti, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (volume 104), April 10, 2007, pages 6278-6282. POSTED May 3, 2007 Episode 2: BIG DOG, little dog Size differences between dogs come down to a single change in a single gene. Watch this episode now! Duration: 3 minutes All dogs are members of the same species, and each characteristic breed is a result of selective breeding by humans. Now, scientists have found that the extreme differences in dog size – between say a Chihuahua and Great Dane – are largely determined by a single change in a single gene. "A Single IGF1 Allele is a Major Determinant of Small Size in Dogs" by Nathan B. Sutter and others, Science (volume 316), April 6, 2007, pages 112-115. POSTED April 25, 2007 Episode 1: Dino Protein is for the Birds Organic material from a T. rex bone shows that birds are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. Watch this episode now! Duration: 3 minutes, 25 seconds In echoes of Jurassic Park, organic material has for the first time been recovered from a dinosaur fossil. Protein fragments from a 68 million year old T. rex bone most closely match samples from a chicken, providing further evidence of the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds. "Analyses of Soft Tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex Suggest the Presence of Protein" by Mary Higby Schweitzer and others, Science (volume 316), April 13, 2007, pages 277-280. "Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry" by John M. Asara and others, Science (volume 316), April 13, 2007, pages 280-285. POSTED April 20, 2007 |
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