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InvisibleDiploidM
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Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar
    #6266634 - 11/09/06 07:04 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sea urchins may be blind, but they have the same genes that help people see, as well as genes for a sense of smell and one of the most complicated immune systems in the animal world, researchers reported on Thursday.

They also have genes associated with diseases such as Huntington's and muscular dystrophy, offering new routes to understanding illnesses, the researchers write in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The sea urchin -- a pincushion-shaped animal found at the bottom of the sea and perhaps best known for its long, sharp spines -- shares more than 7,000 genes with humans, the international team of researchers found.

It was long known to be more closely related to humans and other vertebrates than other creatures favored by biologists for research, such as fruit flies and C. elegans roundworms.

Comparing human genes to their counterparts in other species can help scientists figure out why they evolved, and find ways to help when things go wrong.

The series of studies published in Science confirm this relationship and also make some surprising findings, such as genes for sight found at the bottom of their feet.

"I've been looking at these organisms for 31 years and now I know they were looking back at me," said Gary Wessel, a biology professor at Brown University in Rhode Island who worked on one study.

"We've already learned an enormous amount from the sea urchin, from something as basic as how identical twins form to in vitro fertilization procedures," Wessel added in a statement.

"With a complete map of the urchin's DNA, we can now learn more quickly and easily how each process works during development," he said.

KELP-EATERS

The team of researchers, led by George Weinstock of Baylor College of Medicine, studied Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, commonly known as the California purple sea urchin. It eats kelp growing on the bottom of the Pacific.

They found that the urchin has about 979 genes for proteins that sense light and odors -- similar to what is found in vertebrates that actually do see and smell things. How the sea urchin uses them is not yet clear.

Also remarkable is the animal's immune system, said immunologist Jonathan Rast of the University of Toronto.

The immune system is one thing that differentiates one species from another -- humans have big differences from chimpanzees, for example -- and Rast hopes the sea urchin's immune system will help in understanding how the human immune system evolved.

Like people, sea urchins have many immune genes that are active in the gut, which may help in coping with symbiotic bacteria that help digest food.

"It is one thing to be able to recognize all bacteria and get rid of all of them. It is another thing to maintain that in a complex way that you don't kill all of them," Rast said in a telephone interview.

Vertebrates have adaptive immune systems as well as innate immune systems that attack invaders without necessarily recognizing them, but invertebrates do not.

Urchins appear to have the genetic predecessors to the adaptive immune system -- the antibodies and T-cells that can change and respond to new germs, the study showed.

"They are probably acting in a different way but it was a real surprise to find them," Rast said. "If we can understand how they are acting in a sea urchin, it will help us understand how the system emerged in vertebrates."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlen...C1-ArticlePage1


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Republican Values:

1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you.
2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child.
3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer.

4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.

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OfflineDrewwyann
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Diploid]
    #6270519 - 11/10/06 10:04 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

thats pretty amazing. i always thought they were little prickly things that just walked around and ate kelp. Wonder what would make them evolve to have those genes. Nature kicks ass.

-Drew


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OnlineNewbieS
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Drewwyann]
    #6272551 - 11/11/06 04:15 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

I still say there is a direct link between the dinosaur/human flow of events. It led straight from dinosaurs to humans, no gaps. I mean who's to say they didn't have some dinosaur that survived dormant for all of those years. If it's one thing evolution's taught us it that more time=more complexity, so who's to say dinosaurs weren't genetically predisposed to be able to survive mass extinction with a period of dormancy?

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Offlinewilshire
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Newbie]
    #6272609 - 11/11/06 04:30 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

what?


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OfflineDocPsilocybin
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: wilshire]
    #6272726 - 11/11/06 04:53 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

wilshire said:
what?




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Offlinethe man
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: DocPsilocybin]
    #6272870 - 11/11/06 05:27 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

this is not surprising because we are pretty closely related to echinoderms.. they have internal skeleton aswell :smile:  and i woudl not be surprised if we shared alot more gene sequences with other animals.

and i wouldnt be surprised if the sea urchin didnt use any of them. just some random mutations of junk DNA that became useful to other species that evolved from primative echinoderms.

although it is very interesting to study the path ways of disease type genes. and not have to screw around with humans.


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Offlineg0pher
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Newbie]
    #6272945 - 11/11/06 05:51 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

there are still animals that have remain unchanged since the dinos.

alligators, tuataras, and the coelacanth for example. the first two are reptiles, makes me wonder what allowed them to survive and made the dinos die out


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Offlinethe man
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: g0pher]
    #6273506 - 11/11/06 09:05 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

they have changed, just not alot like most :smile: the only constant in nature is change


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Offlinebarfightlard
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Diploid]
    #6274457 - 11/12/06 05:06 AM (17 years, 4 months ago)

"In the beginning we were all fish. Okay? Swimming around in the water. And then one day a couple of fish had a retard baby, and the retard baby was different, so it got to live. So Retard Fish goes on to make more retard babies, and then one day, a retard baby fish crawled out of the ocean with its [waves his left hand limply] mutant fish hands... and it had buttsex with a squirrel or something and made this. [points to a rodent] retard frog squirrel, and then that had a retard baby which was a... monkey fish-frog... And then this monkey fish-frog had buttsex with that monkey, and... that monkey had a mutant retard baby that screwed another monkey and... that made you! [faces the class. A new girl is seated in the front row, looking around] So there you go! You're the retarded offspring of five monkeys havin' buttsex with a fish-squirrel! Congratulations!"


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Offlinenobhdy
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: barfightlard]
    #6282375 - 11/14/06 12:55 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

well shit, humans are 26% genetically identical to a carrot, but that doesnt make me a quarter carrot. there are only so many combinations in genes. i really dont think that article is very interesting.


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[quote]Gumby said:
And if you are going to waste peoples time with your stupid questions, at least try to have grammar skills higher then that of a 7th grader.

READ DAMNIT! [/quote]

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InvisibleSilversoul
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Re: Evolution: Sea Urchins and Humans Genetically Similar [Re: Diploid]
    #6284072 - 11/14/06 09:22 PM (17 years, 4 months ago)

Considering that all life is genetically similar, I'm having trouble seeing the significance of our similarity to sea urchins.


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