Genetic variation in antigenic, drug resistance, and pathogenesis determinants is abundant, consistent with an ancient origin of P. falciparum, whereas DNA variation at silent (synonymous) sites in
coding sequences appears virtually absent, consistent with a recent origin of the parasite.
Not exact matches
Now scientists think they have cracked the
code: Insect nerve cells
appear to fire in a
sequence unique to each smell, says a report in the 14 November issue of Nature.
«The fact that the genetic
code can simultaneously write two kinds of information means that many DNA changes that
appear to alter protein
sequences may actually cause disease by disrupting gene control programs or even both mechanisms simultaneously,» said Stamatoyannopoulos.
The
sequence GGAC,
code for the bases guanine - guanine - adenine - cytosine, stood out because it
appeared with surprising frequency in the unprocessed primary microRNAs.
In 2000, when scientists of the Human Genome Project presented the first rough draft of the
sequence of bases, or
code letters, in human DNA, the initial results
appeared to confirm that the vast majority of the
sequence — perhaps 97 percent of its 3.2 billion bases — had no apparent function.
The published P. coatneyi genome assembly14 (accession numbers CP016239 to CP016252 from NCBI) contains several large open reading frames that
appear to correspond to
coding sequences, especially in the subtelomeric regions.
No genes that produce abnormal proteins were found, but instead the elevated risk
appears to come from groups of tightly - linked DNA
sequences called «haplotypes» that regulate the expression of protein -
coding genes.