BISC 163 Lecture 1: Platypus Project Article Review Two (1)
Document Summary
The evolution of mammalian vertebrates has been under microscopic study for a long time. However, some unique groups of vertebrates, such as the egg-laying mammal duck-billed platypus, have been sidelined in these studies. Hence, this article is worth presenting in the project because it addresses the gap in the zoological field. The authors of this paper study the evolution of telomerase by analyzing the genes of platypus telomerase reverse transcriptase (tert). Telomerase is a unique enzyme found in most eukaryotes. The enzyme is found at the end caps of chromosomes and is useful in preventing chromosomal recombination and fusion that eventually lead to the organism"s death. The platypus tert gene has a resemblance found in birds and other reptiles, found on sex chromosomes. To continue, this article provides an in-depth examination of the protein oantert, which encodes a protein that shares many similarities with marsupial tert and avian tert.
