2012 - Science News: Space, Evolution, Archaeology & Cataclysms

2012 [ News Blog of Survive2012 ]

Monday, 3. June 2002

RobertBast, June 3, 2002 at 6:08:00 PM AEST

Junk DNA....not junk?

...the study is the first to show in mammalian cells that some human LINE-1, or L1, elements can jump to chromosomes with broken strands of DNA, slip into the break and repair the damage...

Until now, everyone thought L1s were just intracellular parasites in our DNA – leftovers from the distant evolutionary past. The big question in the field is: Are they still there because we can’t get rid of them or do they have a function?...

"We are here today either because of, or in spite of, L1s"...

We have more L1s than any other species.

If they repair DNA in an intelligent manner, does mean we are more highly evolved because of the L1 elements? Is evoution a combination of high DNA mutation from radiation, combined with a repair system which leaves alone any beneficial mutations?

Sources: EurekAlert + NewsWise

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