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Genes Affecting An Individual's Life

Decent Essays

Since the discovery of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, began a persistent controversy: what determines the health and longevity of an individual?, the genes with which they are born or the environment in which it develops? To enrich the discussion, in recent years evidence has been presented that the environment may influence certain aspects of an organism's life that were previously thought to be determined by genes. For example, it has been observed that identical twins may, over time, present physiological, as well as health and even psychological divergences, despite having the same genetic information. These differences are therefore not due to the individual's genes, which usually do not change, But to biochemical processes …show more content…

Dr. Felix Recillas Targa, a researcher at the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Institute of Cellular Physiology at UNAM, explains: "Within a eukaryotic cell, like those of higher organisms, there is a nucleus, and inside it DNA is compacted with Genetic information. If we stretch the DNA molecule, it would have a length of two to three linear meters. The eukaryotic cell had to evolve into a highly complex system that compacts the DNA molecule inside the tiny cell nucleus. "
But it is not enough to simply entangle it and put it in the nucleus. The cell reader mechanism must have access to the genes. In essence, a gene is a stretch of DNA that contains the information needed to make a protein. In order to be read by the cellular machinery, the molecule has to be compacted in an organized way. There also needs to be some mechanism that relaxes the compacted DNA.
The strands of DNA are wrapped around molecules called histones, which act as reels. The fiber resulting from this first stage of compaction becomes entangled further, and thus in several steps. Duly compacted, the set forms a few separate skeins called chromosomes . When unraveled for the cellular machinery to read, the set that forms DNA, histones and other molecules that give structure is called chromatin

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