LIFE 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Craig Venter, Falsifiability, Darwinism
Document Summary
Transposable elements ( jumping genes , transposons) were first described by barbara. Mcclintock working with corn in the 1940s (spotted kernels). Transposons occur in all major life forms, from bacteria to man. Transposable elements (and their remnants) make up almost half of the human genome. Also called microsatellite dna or strs; there are what are used in codis forensics because their numbers vary so much in the human population). ~19,000 pseudogenes (mutated nonfunctional genes, evolutionary vestiges) and other noncoding sequences. First human genome = a composite = b, 13 years. Now that there are many who genome sequences we can study evolution at the chromosome level as well as the gene level. Inherited diseases are caused by mutations that produce disease alleles of genes, which are located on chromosomes. Disease states result from the loss or malfunction of the protein encoded by the genes. Stronger" human beings, sometimes called social darwinism : that is just plain wrong.
