There is a gene called TP53 - its referred to as the guardian of the genome - it is a tumor suppressor gene and prevents cancer of all types. Humans have two copies and if one is broken/mutated it causes an inherited condition called Li Fraumeni. People with this have a very very high risks for cancer, and the condition can be passed down in families. Elephants have 20 copies of TP53 and therefore rarely get cancer. The Li Fraumeni foundation uses the elephant as its mascot and hopefully we can someday figure out how to replace faulty TP53 genes for these families.

OrangeMonarchQueen , Chokniti Khongchum (not the actual photo) Report

Perhaps my favourite biology fact is about pharmacogenetics, how your genetics determines the efficacy of drugs on your system due to prevalence of receptors of different types that the drugs target to produce an effect:

"90% of drugs only work on 30-50% of the population."

I find it so truly wild. But most people I've talked to about it seem to agree that some drug or other doesn't work for them. This really highlights how much of a process finding the right drug for a person is. I had a lecture on this in uni in about 2016 and it said the future of pharmacology is individual genetic screens for drug effectiveness meaning people don't have to keep trying different drugs until they find the one that works, you would be tested then your doctor would have that info. I just hope it overcomes the pushback from Big Pharma in my lifetime cause it would be a true game-changer.

jimbo-g , Christine Sandu Report

While it might sound like a cross between dystopian fiction and body horror, some researchers believe that there is a lot of potential to store data and information in our DNA. After all, in one sense, thats exactly what DNAs actual function is. That being said, most of us probably dont want to walk around with our own DNA turned into a sort of USB flash stick when we can literally buy this device in most stores.

Comically, as sci-fi as this idea sounds, it might already be out of date. Research into this topic has found that encoding data into our DNA is not only more costly but less reliable and slower to read than the various means of data storage we already have. So if you really want to get cyberpunk, perhaps get a QR code tattooed or investigate the wonderful world of chipping your palms.

That if you unraveled all of the DNA in your body, and stretched it out in a straight line, you'd be dead.

volume_two Report

Since navel oranges have no seeds, they are all clones of the original mutated fruit discovered by a Brazilian monk a century ago. The billions and billions of navel oranges that have been grown, sold and consumed since are all genetically identical.

JK_NC , Shang Ning Report

Cheetahs are extremely inbred. They had a massive bottleneck about 10,000 years ago and had too little diversity to fully recover.

confusedbox03 , Pixabay Report

For simplicity, let's say your mother is 50% Chinese & 50% Spanish. That does **not** mean you are 25% of each.

On paper it would seem so but you can have any combination of those two equaling to 50%. It's not a clean cut in half. It's a *random* 50% given and 50% not. Although, yes there are dominate genes that can give all the kids a certain nose shape or eye color. Still, you and your siblings might get these DNA combos from mom:

- you: 30% C & 20% S

- brother: 12% C & 38% S

- sister: 5% C & 45% S

So if you ever wondered why your sister looks more Spanish than you its because genetics wise she just is more Spanish.

a_person1852 Report

If you set aside ethics and set out to do it, it would only take 33 generations to create a human being who was the descendant of everyone currently alive and able to have children.

Also, pedigree collapse: no living person has as many unique ancestors as they mathematically should. Every person has, biologically, 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, etc, doubling every generation. 30 generations back without any degree of inbreeding would require over a billion unique 28x great grandparents, more than the entire world population for 1100 AD. Every single human's family tree is full of people marrying and having children with cousins of some genetically-unimportant degree over the last thousand years.

Triton1017 , Tyler Nix (not the actual photo) Report

not everyone may know is that your genes play a role in determining whether you are more likely to be a morning person or a night owl

Either-Growth9518 Report

1. Most genetics studies were, and are still, done on white western populations. Some things that we "know" about genetics turn out to not work so well in non-white or non-western populations. Loose example: diagnostic tests to check for certain diseases sometimes misdiagnose Americans with African ancestry, because sometimes we don't actually know exactly how certain diseases will look in non-European ancestry patients, we just assume it will be the same.

2. Africa, as a whole, is the most genetically diverse continent for human genetics. Humans outside of Africa went through a population bottleneck, resulting in an overall lack of diversity moving forward. The human blender of genetics in Europe just didn't have many starting ingredients. There are things called linkage disequilibrium maps, which basically map out sections of the genome that are usually found inherited together. In Europe, these maps are quite "chunky", with large identifiable sections that are sort of reliably found intact. But in Africa, the blender was always running and never had a bottleneck, so those maps are basically a much finer puree, with a lot more mixing. This presents certain challenges, as many studies rely on those maps to make predictions, and it's harder to do that when the map for Africa as a whole is basically way more complex.

3. Everyone's cancer is its own unique genetic disease. There is no one true single disease called "lung cancer", just as there is no one single true human genome. Everyone is genetically unique (yes even identical twins), and every cancer is unique.

4. Chromothripsis is a thing where a chromosome pretty much shatters and gets stuck back together all out of order. And... this is sometimes okay. There are cases of people who have chromosomes that have undergone chromothripsis, and they have mild to moderate symptoms, but they're not dead, which is miraculous.

5. Remember in biology class when you learn about mitosis? And there's that step called metaphase where all the chromosomes line up in a line before being separated into two new cells? That spot in the middle of the "X"-shaped chromosomes where the spindles attach to line them up is called the centromere. And it's sort of mysterious black hole of genetics. There aren't usually any genes there, just a chaotic cluster-f**k of repetitive sequence that gets chopped forwards, backwards, repeated 7 times, swapped around and repeated again, etc etc in an area that's hundreds of thousands of nucleotides long. But what's even crazier is that we don't really know *why* they are how or where they are, because *you don't need the wacky wasteland of repeats for them to work*. Almost all centromeres in all animals look like this, but there are exceptions. A very notable exception is that very very rarely in humans, a "mar-del" chromosome can form where a chromosome accidentally loops on itself and pinches (think of that heart thing people do with their thumb and forefinger), resulting in a circular chromosome that still has its centromere, and a "butterfly" chromosome that does not. Without a centromere, a chromosome can't be duplicated into daughter cells successfully, and cells can't live without the genes on that butterfly chromosome so this should be lethal if it happens early on in development. But surprise, a centromere can and has spontaneously formed on the butterfly chromosome, making them tiny, viable chromosomes that work pretty much fine! But like I said this is super rare, with only a few recorded cases ever. Centromeres in general are very cool and very mysterious.

6. Everything about modern next-generation genetic sequencing is super interesting, yet not well known to the general public. I won't brain dump about it, but if you want to know more, ask and I will!

Mooshan Report

Birthing identical twins is not an inherited trait. Its random. Fraternal twinning is inherited, but only from mother to daughter. My MIL took credit for me having identical twins because she had fraternal twin siblings. When I explained that genetics proved her wrong she was not having it!!

JellyfishEastern8184 , Becerra Govea Photo (not the actual photo) Report

When youre pregnant, bits of DNA from your baby invade your body and settle all over permanently - including in your brain. Researches found this by looking for male DNA in the brains of deceased 70 year olds. Interestingly, mouse studies have also shown that fetal cells within the mother have restorative properties and will rush to places like the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver if its injured and can even become cells that begin beating. One of the theories I have seen but I dont know if anyone knows for certain if this is true is that these cells enter our bodies so a host is less likely to reject the parasite baby.

Sweaty-Peanut1 Report

I'm a geneticist with a mediocre master's degree in biology and currently pursuing a PhD in Bioinformatics. Here are some insights:

1. The accuracy of consumer and clinical genetic tests is often questionable due to the rapid pace of scientific advancements outpacing their application in the industry. The notable exceptions are information about Neanderthal ancestry (which is significant enough to have earned a Nobel Prize in Medicine) and a few critical mutations like the sickle cell variant and others related to blood.

2. Genetically, most humans are nearly identical, with differences being incredibly minute. This means that, barring age and sex, achieving success in various fields whether it's social, intelligence, or physical appearance is possible without genetic modifications. Everyone likely has a unique genetic trait that gives them a significant advantage, however. This is currently identifiable only in a lab setting. Understanding your unique trait, which often involves the expression of certain molecules, might require professional scientific interpretation.

3. Many severe genetic diseases, such as insulin-dependent diabetes, are only about 50% determined by genetics. Factors like early developmental conditions, including a mother's diet during early pregnancy and infections, play a paramount role.

4. Despite common belief, Neanderthals were not a separate species but rather a part of the human family. For perspective, Europeans and the Khoisan people of South Africa have been genetically divergent for about 300,000 years, not much less than the 500,000-year divergence between humans and Neanderthals.

5. Factors beyond genetics, such as living in a highly controlled environment (like a prison), having access to specific nutrition, owning a car and a separate house, and engaging in mental activities like language learning, math, statistics, and team video games, can significantly impact personal development. Genetics helps us understand and appreciate the influence of these non-genetic factors. The field of genetics is incredibly dynamic and continually evolving, offering many more fascinating insights.

nevermindever42 Report

Genetic chimera is arguably the most interesting condition. It is possible (and documented) for a woman to give natural birth but the baby not match her DNA test.

Essentially, 2 fertilized eggs merge at a very early stage and developing into a single organism. Different parts of the body comprised of obe or the other genome.

It's most commonly discovered in domestic animals that have unexplainable color combinations, often (but not always) divided symmetrically.

Eagle_1776 , Dominika Roseclay (not the actual photo) Report

Trauma can be inherited (look up transgenerational trauma).

So if you feel more sensitive than most people it might be because your grandma experienced something horrible.

On average it takes three generations to heal a trauma if I remember correctly. But only if properly treated and the parents do not retraumatize their kids with their unconscious trauma-responses. This way unhealthy behaviors would become the norm and eventually become genetically preferred automatic behavior for future generations.

Even-Ad-6783 Report

One in 40 Ashkenazi Jewish women has a BRCA gene mutation. Mutations in BRCA genes raise a person's risk for getting breast cancer at a young age, and also for getting ovarian and other cancers. That is why Ashkenazi Jewish women are at higher risk for breast cancer at a young age.

Walter_Piston Report

Twins can be half identical. Like same egg split but two different sperms so they share about 75% genetic similarities compared to 100% in identical twins and 50% in fraternal twins/siblings. They can even be boy and girl twins.

SunRemiRoman , Pixabay (not the actual photo) Report

There are more combinations than just XX and XY.

And some of the variations have no outward signs, so you could have one of them and have no idea without genetic testing.

NotMyNameActually Report

Pretty much everybody is clueless about 99.9% of genetics.

hapidaron Report

Humans are closer genetically to bonobos than chimpanzees.

I wish I was a bonobo.

MyMudEye Report

Get tested for hereditary high cholesterol (familial hypercholesterolemia). It's a comparatively common genetic disorder.

It shows next to no symptoms but can clog your arteries and kill you, no matter how healthy your diet and lifestyle. It rarely skips a generation.

The treatment is usually a medication called statins.

LarryLongBalls_ Report

The green eyed gene is a recessive gene when compared to brown eyed gene; it is dominant when compared to blue eye gene.

illuminatedcake Report

UV gives you cancer because literally makes your DNA stick so tightly the only way to fix it is remove the entire section then "guess" what was there. More this happens, more chance cell becomes cancerous.

Bacteria don't have this polymerase repair so it's why UV kills them or mutates them.

Plant one - Hexaploid wheatpossesses 42 chromosomes derived from its three ancestral genomes. The 21 pairs of chromosomes can be further divided into seven groups of six chromosomes (one chromosome pair being derived from each of the three ancestral genomes)... This is mainly because of how much humans have bred it it's literally inbred.

arabidopsis , Jesse Schoff (not the actual photo) Report

Read more:
Cheetahs Are Extremely Inbred: 50 Interesting Genetics Facts You May Have Missed At School - Bored Panda