7
votes
Why does ionizing radiation cause only DNA double strand breaks?
Ionizing radiation does cause single-strand breaks and other kinds of DNA lesions that are not double-strand breaks. However, double-strand breaks are the most difficult to repair and are thus the ...
- 8,266
6
votes
Does the second law of thermodynamics cause aging?
Second law of thermodynamic and ageing
The second law of thermodynamic applies to closed system. Organisms are not closed system. The second law of thermodynamic is a fundamental principle of our ...
- 68k
6
votes
Is there a point in our life when ALL the atoms from our childhood's body get replaced?
Is there a point in our life when ALL the atoms from our childhood's body gets replaced?
No. There is no point where ALL atoms have been replaced.
This has been shown by tracing distinct carbon ...
- 1,597
5
votes
What do white blood cells do with FOREIGN white blood cells?
Okay, you have a lot of questions there. I'll try to give some answers, but if you want more details or background knowledge I'd recommend you to read /study more about immunology (none of your ...
- 4,391
5
votes
Accepted
How to safely conserve my current DNA methylation marks?
To record the current methylation state of your DNA, you can use bisulfite sequencing. Basically, you take half of your DNA sample and treat with bisulfite, which deaminates cytosines (C->U) , so they ...
- 3,338
4
votes
Accepted
Are missing limbs hereditary?
Does this mean that if one (or both) parents have something major missing (like a limb), the kid will come out without a limb?
Unless there is a genetic basis to the missing limb, no. Even for people ...
- 2,258
4
votes
Accepted
meaning of "usually greater than 200 base pairs"
No, similarity is not measured in base pairs. They are talking of regions of cross-over being marked by at least 200bp of highly similar sequence between the two strands involved in exchange.
- 1,294
4
votes
Accepted
Replacing, instead of repairing, DNA
It seems very feasible to synthesize human DNA (please inform my
ignorance, if I'm wrong. lol.) and it looks very promising after
reading this:
https://www.wired.com/story/live-forever-synthetic-...
- 3,313
3
votes
Accepted
Why does inbreeding cause genetic defects, but cell division in one's own body does not?
I suspect your problem is grasping what is a deleterious recessive allele. Wikipedia and textbooks explain it much better but I will try to illustrate with respect to your question.
I have to merge ...
- 583
3
votes
Does it make sense to make my own DNA copy (kind of backup) while I am young?
While your DNA gets damaged, not every single cell will have the same damage. Your consensus DNA sequence will not change.
- 5,175
3
votes
Accepted
Are nucleotides at the ends of DNA stripped on aging?
The Stanford article that you read is correct, in the sense that telomeres do not need to be completely removed by cell division before deleterious effects occur and cells start undergoing senescence. ...
- 9,432
3
votes
Which frequency of UV light damages DNA?
Not only pure DNA, UV radiations are one of the main causes of skin cancer because they damage cellular DNA in skin cells. Talking about frequency range, two different types of UV radiations damage ...
- 14.1k
3
votes
Is it possible for a human to live forever if he/she didn't catch any diseases?
No that is not possible ever. There is something called telomere which is present in the chromosomes of cell .These Telomere triggers the action of ageging and leads body towards death. When we are in ...
- 41
3
votes
Why does inbreeding cause genetic defects, but cell division in one's own body does not?
You say
cells basically create copies of DNA all the time in our body. There may be a few mutations/errors, but it works out fine.
and
Why does merging two similar things cause more problems
...
- 3,324
3
votes
Accepted
How can DNA replication result in hair pin structures?
DNA Hairpins are formed when two regions in same single stranded DNA are complementary in nucleotide sequence but in the opposite directions (as represented in image below). These two sets of ...
- 1,307
2
votes
Does vitamin C decrease after reacting with oxygen free radicals?
Correct, vitamin C (ascorbate) acts by donating 1 electron to a free radical (reducing them to a stable compound with paired electrons), and is thereby itself oxidized to semidehydroascorbate. This is ...
- 5,675
2
votes
How do mutations actually occur?
Mutation of DNA can be caused by an exogenous or endogenous source. Many external factors like irradiation or chemicals induce mutations. Some endogenous mutations arise from oxidative stress, ...
- 21
2
votes
RF Cautery DNA damage?
The EMF/RF doesn’t directly damage the cell. It just deranges cellular metabolism.
The free radicals that are produced by this change in metabolism are what causes the damage.
OXIDATIVE STRESS AND ...
- 21
2
votes
Is it possible for a human to live forever if he/she didn't catch any diseases?
The diseases are only a part of it. Aging is also accidents and such. Cancer would still be prevalent as would accidental deaths. Even a perfect body would eventually fail because individual cell ...
- 31
2
votes
Why does asbestos cause cancer?
More basic answer; the asbestos crystals have hooks. So the cilia in the lungs have difficulty moving them out with the other dust. This irritates the tissue causing the effects of the first answer. ...
- 620
2
votes
Accepted
Why doesn’t p53 cause the repair of cellular DNA that has been altered experimentally?
I am no expert in this area, and this answer is only based on a reading of the Wikipedia article on p53, which you should perhaps have read carefully. I welcome edits or correction by persons more ...
- 24.3k
2
votes
Does the SMUG1 enzyme break single-stranded DNA?
I think you needed to click just one more link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_excision_repair
It just cuts out the base so there's an empty spot on the ribose. I was looking for a picture and ...
- 1,473
2
votes
Is reverse senescence/"anti-aging" actually scientifically possible among humans yet?
Short Answer
You might be interested in learning about telomeres, telomerase, and telomerase gene therapy.
For example, Boccardi & Herbig (2012): describe a mouse study in which they used ...
- 29.7k
2
votes
Why does inbreeding cause genetic defects, but cell division in one's own body does not?
Why does inbreeding cause genetic defects, but cell division in one's own body does not?
Inbreeding does not cause genetic defects, it just makes already existing ones more likely to be problematic.
...
- 962
2
votes
Accepted
Changes in dna from dioxin poisoning
Studies on model organisms suggest effects begin quickly, within 6-8 hours of exposure. Rat studies suggest liver absorption of dioxin reaches a maximum from 8-24 hours, with Cytochrome P450 protein ...
- 5,568
2
votes
How can prokaryotes repair double strand breaks by homologous recombination if they're haploids?
Several answers to this question:
Much of the time what bacteria are doing to repair DSBs is actually non-homologous end-joining, which does not require strict homology. This is the more likely ...
- 9,152
2
votes
Accepted
What does genetically tractable strain mean?
You've already basically got the idea of "genetically tractable": if we can readily modify an organism's genome using known techniques, then it's genetically tractable.
That's a moving ...
- 6,977
1
vote
Accepted
How far can free radicals from UV radiation diffuse through the skin?
The life of the radicals decides how far they move.
This paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4310837/#!po=6.92308 has a table of half lives of radicals, the longest lasting ones (the ...
- 2,883
1
vote
Can something cause both breaks and cross-links in DNA?
Cisplatin forms DNA-protein crosslinks (so DNA-protein-DNA by extension) in vitro [1] and a review [2] says that cisplatin leads to DSBs (although I can't access the primary source at the moment). But ...
- 790
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