Friday, March 2, 2012

AP Bio: Genome Chromsome 3: History

In the third chapter of Genome, "Chromosome 3: History," Ridley beings by by talking about what happened historically in genetics and the researcher Archibald Garrod's conclusion that "what we inherit from our parents is a gigantic list of recipes for making proteins and for making protein-making machines" (40).  Through evolution, which was "the accumulation of slight and random changes through selection" (44-45), in other words, mutations, different species emerge.  At the end of the chapter, Ridley explain how Chromosome three was discovered by two Spaniards using the fungus Aspergillus, making a defective form of the protein homogentisate dioxygenase.  Ridley goes on to say that this third chromosome is "the epitome of a boring gene" and that there's nothing special about it and it does not tell us anything important about the origin of life.


Source: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley

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