These two mice are genetically identical and exactly the same age. Each mouse’s mother received a different, specialized diet, which switched on or off chemical clusters called methyl groups that reside near genes. Flipping these genetic switches created differences in size, fur color and health in the otherwise identical offspring. Credit: Randy Jirtle/Duke University
18 comments:
I thought that this article was very interesting. I think that the whole thing was kind of evidence for the nurture side in the Nature vs. Nurture Debate. It makes sense that what the mother is eating when she is pregnant effects the baby, but I didn't think that what the father eats also impacts the baby, but once they explained why, it does kind of make sense. I especially thought that it was interesting that genes can be flipped so easily.
I thought this article was really interesting because it is really cool, how the methyl groups affect a person's genes. This theory can only be proven on rat DNA and not human DNA. The reason they do not do tests on human DNA is because humans take a longer time to go through a life cycle.
This study is impressive, and I agree with what Emma said, this is much like a Nature vs. Nurture evidence source. I find it strange that what a father eats also can effect his child. Jordan says that this hasn't been tested on humans because of our life cycle length, but I think we should try proving this theory.
I also think that it is interesting that when a rat gets licked, it helps improve their bravery. I wouldn't think that one has much to do with the other.
I just want to say, when my mom was pregnant with me an my brother, she ate lots of French Fries. Therefore my brother and I love french fries. When she was pregnant with my sister, she did not eat french fries, and Ella hates french freis.
Esther, what I meant by humans go through a longer life cycle is that, if they did a test and fed somebody fattening foods, and they gave birth it would probably take 2 years to complete the process.
(sorry I did not finish my previous post) If you did the testing on rats, it would take 3 months.
It's great that we are finding things to improve diseases and mental illnesses and stuff, but what I think we should be working on is an antidote for cancer, or something we don't already have an antidote for. I mean, learning about how it affects Diphtheria is all well and good, but it would be much more helpful if they could find a cure for cancer it could help society much more.
Wow, that is so closely related to nature vs. nurture. Your genes can be changed, well kind of. Even if you have genes they probably can be flipped on and off. All of that was just evidence for the nurture side. Especially if the mother mouse licked their children, and that you could change that later in life. It was interesting that the mother and the father's diets affected their children. That also makes us look more like electronic things, because we have a lot of switches in side of us.
That's so interesting! I wonder if in the future, if you could go to the doctor and they could give you a shot that made you braver or stronger or even changed what you like. I wish that I was on the nature side of the debate because of that article. I wonder how they came up with the different things to inject and give to the rodents so that they would be different.
The article says that the mice have the same genes in the same order on some chromosomes, but there are so many chromosomes in one mouse that they couldn't have every individual chromosome in both of the mice match up exactly, that's why one mouse is different that the other.
I thought that this was very interesting. Like Emma said, this is evidence for the nature versus nurture debate. I always thought that it was just what the mom eats because the mom gives birth. This was a very interesting article and I learned a lot from it.
I thought it was pretty cool that methyl groups can turn certain genes on and off. I wish I had found this site before we finished the debate, because it would be good evidence.
I think this is an awesome article! It's so cool that you can be exactly the same to another person when born, but after different diets you can be very different. I agree with Emma and Esther that this helps the nurture side in the Nature vs. Nurture Debate. What I think is amazing is that when a mother is eating certain things while she is pregnant she can give her child a disease depending on what she eats.
This is so cool! I learned so much from this article! I never would have guessed that those two mice in the picture had the same genes! They looked so different. I never knew that it's not just your genes that effect what you look like, it's also what's on your genes!
I think this post was really interesting! I think it was kind of like the subject of the debate. I also thought the test done on mice was really cool. I learned a lot about genes,
This is a really cool article. It is very interesting the effect of what the mother ate when she was pregnant on the child. I could believe that. When it said the fathers food record could impact the baby mouse' genes thats what caught my attention.
Nature versus Nurture...again. I found it eye opening when the article talked about the obese male rats passing on the overweight tendency to their female offspring. Also, it was fascinating when the diet of the two female rats were controlled to the point where the dna was turned off in one female rat which caused her to never feel full, therefore she always over ate and became very heavy. She passed this overweight tendency to her offspring. It seems the environment can play a big role in activating our dna.
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