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Monday, February 27, 2012

The Essentials: Of Mice and (Wo)men


In 2004 researcher Jonathon Tilly presented evidence that indicated an ability in mice to regenerate egg cells.  This finding flew in the face of the century old thought that mammalian females are born with a certain number of eggs and that no new eggs are produced.  In next month’s edition of the journal Nature Medicine Tilly will report experiments that show he and his team have found the same ability in human women.
That this similarity between mice and humans was found is not really that surprising.  Mice have similar genes and gene sequences as humans. The evolutionary explanation for this commonality is that humans and mice genes come from the same source DNA.  It would be expected then that similarities would be found both in sequence and function and that any differences that do exist between humans and mice are due to accumulated mutations.  This type of commonality can be seen to varying degrees in all organisms. The fewer the differences in sequences the closer organisms are related.
MPR had a story about the Tilly research this morning that you can read or listen to here. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=147344258

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