S4.21 Rarities and Oddities: the strangest genetics stories of 2021
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode, we’re squelching through the Californian mud, swimming with platypuses, bearing witness to daylight robbery and even finding time to catch an episode of Star Trek as we look back on some of the most mind-blowing stories from the world of genetics in 2021.
Meet the Borg
You might not think there are many cutting edge scientific discoveries waiting to be uncovered in a pile of mud. But earlier this year, Professor Jill Banfield, a microbiologist from the University of California, Berkeley, proved that the best scientific discoveries can be found even in the most unlikely places. Click here to find out what Professor Jill Banfield discovered.
The gene thief
We’re used to the ideas that genes get passed down the generations from parent to child - so-called vertical gene transfer. But the first known example of horizontal gene transfer - or gene theft - from plants to insects has been reported by an international team of scientists led by Youjun Zhang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Click here to learn all about what these insects have been getting up to.
Mirror, mirror…
The mirror image of DNA, which turns to the left, is called L-DNA. L-DNA has gained some attention in recent years because it has the potential to be used in data storage. Over the past few years, scientists from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, have been creating mirror-image DNA polymerases, made with mirror-image amino acids, which can build L-DNA in the same way natural polymerases build right handed DNA. Click here to find out who is the fairest one of all?
Rewriting the genetic alphabet
The genetic alphabet as we know it consists of four letters - A,G,T and C, which are the abbreviations of four chemical bases, adenine, cytosine, thymine and guanine. This four-letter code has long been considered fixed for all life on Earth, but in 1977 researchers in the Soviet Union identified a phage virus called S-2L, which infects photosynthetic bacteria, that contained a chemically modified version of adenine, which they called 2-aminoadenine, or Z for short. Click here to discover why this features on our rundown of the strangest genetics stories of 2021.
Genes Down Under
By any standard, platypuses are weird, with a seemingly random collection of features that look like they pressed the evolutionary shuffle button a little too enthusiastically. In search of some genetic explanations for the platypus’ unique characteristics, back in January 2021 scientists published the most complete genome sequences of the platypus to date. Click here to read more about how researchers have used this to uncover more about the evolution of mammals.
That’s all for now. We’ll be back next time taking a look at the genetics of music. Apologies to all who were expecting this episode last month - we had an unavoidable scheduling issue with one of our guests, but it will be worth the wait, I promise!
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney with additional research and scripting by Emily Nordvang. It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
Music and sound effects licensed from Epidemic Sound
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