This might be worth quoting- a report in June25 Nature that suppressing essential embryonic genes in muscle stemcells had no effect (on muscle-growth).
That could be taken as quite decent support – unintentional pun – for the info in genes being very dependent on growth. Once you have adult stemcells the info has been ‘programmed-in’ & obviously is now a functioning organ. The implication seems to be that you just never know what’s in ESCs – it’s the programming that counts – & can change the function of genes.
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February 15, 2010 at 11:36 am |
[...] Population-sampling is able to detect biochemical mechanisms linked to genes. Basically, the gene-variants are invisible unless you find the mechanism so, instead of the genome having information, research has actually turned things around & it’s the mechanisms supply useful information. Reason being genes don’t exist in isolation but inside a vastly complicated organic environment. Now, it seems to me you could suggest a trend away from genetics here & it was pretty interesting to see an article in that cutting-edge journal Time magazine to that effect! ‘Epigenomes’ are the body’s natural programmers & so vastly more useful than the genome. (See prev ‘what info is in ESCs?‘) [...]