DECEMBER 2, 2019
An international team led by
Alexander Suh at Uppsala University has sequenced a chromosome in zebra finches
called the germline-restricted chromosome (GRC). This chromosome is only found
in germline cells, the cells that hold genetic information which is passed on
to the next generation. The researchers found that the GRC is tens of millions
of years old and plays a key role in songbird biology, having collected genes
used for embryonic development.
The ability to reproduce is a
fundamental trait of all life. How reproduction has evolved and how it functions
on a genetic level is therefore of great interest to evolutionary biologists.
During the early development of an animal embryo, cells are divided into two
major types, germline and somatic
cells. Germline cells are present in the reproductive organs and hold genetic information which
is passed on to the next generation, whereas somatic cells are the cells which
make up the rest of the organism. Biologists have discovered that in some
organisms, certain genes and repetitive DNA-sequences are eliminated when cells
become either somatic or germline, which means that not all cells in an
organism contain the same genome.
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