new study: we are mutating

May 2, 2006, 4:58 PM PDT
By Candace Lombardi
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Small damages to sequences in the human genome are causing evolutionary changes in our DNA, according to a group of Japanese geneticists.

Their recent findings prove that a common form of DNA damage caused by oxidation (called 8-oxoG) is a primary cause of mutagenesis, damage to DNA during the genome replication process that causes mutations in the resulting DNA molecules.
Succinctly, the human race is genetically mutating, and we now may know how and why--at least in part.

Japanese geneticist Yusaku Nakabeppu of Kyushu University and his team released their findings Monday in Genome Research.

"Our findings suggest that 8-oxoG is one of the main causes of frequent recombinations and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) in the human genome, which largely contribute to the genomic diversity in human beings," the researchers concluded in their Genome Research journal article.

story - sym patico-msn-ca.com.com

i wounder what the end result will be in this mutation process??? real life x-men? real life super heroes? maybe its not impossible after all?

your say on this?


[edit on 8-5-2006 by worksoftplayhard]

[edit on 8-5-2006 by sanctum]

As much as I'd love to be master of magnetism or be able to fire blasts of ambient cosmic energy from my hands, I don't think we'll be seeing any "mutants" in the future.

I think te extent of our mutation (for now) will be small things such as changes in skin colour (yes we will become even more diverse!), minor changes to our internal organs etc.

Course this all just IMO. I'm not a geneticist or anything.

i have a friend who was born without his wisdom teeth, i think that this is a sign of our evolution as we dont use them anymore.

^^ lucky bastard

I just went through the pain of having mine removed...

In all seriousness though, it's interesting that it has been discovered that we are evolving, I have been wondering if we were still physically evolving, or if we had hit a genetic dead end.

[edit on 8-5-2006 by AussieNutter]

The study seemed to be pretty limited - 2 men and 2 women?

On top of that, no real questions are answered. Is this good or bad? Are we adapting or endangering? Can it be stopped? Are some people protected? Is there a direct effect on the individual evolving or is it more a concern for offspring?

I just hate these things that result in more questions than answers.

I remember some crazy theory that every 20000 years or so the magnetosphere shuts down because of decreased current in the magma, or something of that nature. Anyways when this comes are bodies are bombarded by cosmic radiation leading to mutation and jumps backwards and forwards in evolution. While not entirely related certainly interesting. X-Men here we come! I got dibbs on Nightcrawler. He might be ugly, but good German accent and the whole teleportation thing is a plus.

Haven't we always been mutating?
I thought mutations were the SOP for the DNA.

Cosmic radiation might have triggered the mutation process which altered the course of human evolution some 40,000 years ago I wonder if we'd be smarter or something if we always stayed outdoors without wearing any tin foil hat?

SignOnSan Diego.com: Astronomers link human evolution, cosmic radiation

June 7, 2006


Why did modern humans and other species emerge some 40,000 years ago?

Coming from almost anyone else, the suggestion that a burst of cosmic radiation profoundly mutated life on Earth and altered the course of human evolution would probably be dismissed as outrageous science fiction. But Aden and Marjorie Meinel have been both serious and significant players in astronomy for a good chunk of the last century.

an examination of existing ice core data showed a significant surge in radiation roughly 40,000 years ago – about the same time, they noted, that modern humans emerged in Eurasia, and numerous other species in the northern hemisphere were either undergoing significant change or disappearing altogether. “That's when we first became tempted to put two and two together,” said Aden. “If there was a large surge of cosmic rays, and there's good evidence that these rays can (cause mutations), the question becomes, did they help create new species of life?

I want to be storm or rogue! Or maybe some galactic super mutant like silver surfer!

Surfer ain't a mutant

I had also thought man had stopped evolving. There isn't really any need for us to any more is there? Evolution occurs when a species is forced to adapt to its environment, but humans are the one species that makes the environment adapt to them. Things evolve around us.