There is evidence that the British have had some long standing research and historical concerns regarding Mitochondria, its defects in the royal Blood line, and its lineage all the way back to Eve. Hmmm...count the number of "reservations" and references to "unethical" in the BBC article (I count 13, repeating themselves even). Then note these:
[Archive: 13 March 1999]
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http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990313/newsstory1.html
All about Eve...
Michael Day
MITOCHONDRIAL EVE, from whom all women are descended, is twice as old as we thought. That's the suggestion from two new studies that challenge the idea that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited only from our mothers.
Mitochondria, the energy-generating structures in all our cells, have their own DNA. Even if mitochondria from sperm get into the egg during fertilisation, biologists thought they would be rapidly eliminated.
This simple pattern of inheritance, as well as the speedy rate at which some parts of mtDNA mutate, has made it a very useful molecular clock to study evolution. Using this clock, biologists were able to estimate that "Eve", the most recent common ancestor of all women, lived in Africa between 100 000 and 200 000 years ago. Tracing "Adam", the equivalent common ancestor for men, has proved more difficult.
But two studies of the distribution of mtDNA mutations in human populations now suggest that there is a degree of paternal mtDNA inheritance. That throws previous evolutionary calculations using mtDNA into confusion and greatly complicates the business of estimating when Eve lived.
In the first of these studies, an international team led by Erika Hagelberg of Cambridge University studied the distribution of one mtDNA mutation on the island of Nguna in the Melanesian archipelago of Vanuatu. The mutation, which causes the substitution of a single amino acid in one mitochondrial protein, is present in people of many separate maternal mtDNA lines.
One reason this might happen would be if this particular mutation has a tendency to occur spontaneously. But the fact that it doesn't exist outside Vanuatu makes this unlikely. The obvious explanation, say the researchers in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B (vol 266, p 485), is that some paternal mtDNA enters the egg and recombines with the maternal mtDNA.
The second study, by John Maynard Smith and colleagues at the University of Sussex, focused on mutations in mitochondrial proteins from populations around the world. They found a large number of mtDNA sites where mutations occurred. But most of these mutations were found in only a limited geographic area. This suggests again that the mutations occurred very rarely and then spread locally by recombination of maternal and paternal mtDNA, say the Sussex researchers in the same journal issue (p 477). "These two studies represent the first evidence that recombination is happening in mtDNA," says team member Adam Eyre-Walker.
If recombination with paternal mtDNA is responsible for some of the variation in mtDNA, then its true mutation rate is much lower than biologists thought and Eve must have lived longer ago than the 100 000 to 200 000 years of current estimates. "These findings mean that she must be twice as old," says Eyre-Walker.
Laurence Hurst, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Bath, predicts the two studies will provoke a heated debate. "These papers are going to create some waves," he says. It's difficult to prove that paternal recombination, rather than just mutation, is involved, says Hurst. "But I think recombination is the best explanation for what they've found."
From New Scientist, 13 March 1999
© Copyright New Scientist, RBI Limited 2001
[Archive: 22 May 1999]
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http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990522/newsstory6.html
Fit for a king
Matt Walker
THE RARE INCURABLE DISORDER that made King George III suffer bouts of insanity may soon be treatable. The disease, which is known as porphyria, afflicted a long line of monarchs in Europe.
Porphyria develops when the body produces excess amounts of molecules called porphyrins. Porphyrins are the building blocks for haem, the iron-rich component of haemoglobin. If the body fails to synthesise haem properly, porphyrins build up and can reach toxic levels.
Patients with this disorder can suffer from a wide range of symptoms including port-coloured faeces, stomach pains, muscle weakness and hypersensitivity to light. The chemicals can also interfere with the nervous system, causing mental illness.
John Röhl, a historian at Sussex University, says convincing evidence has recently come to light that Mary Queen of Scots suffered from a hereditary form of the disease, called variegate porphyria. This was passed down to George III, England's "mad" king.
The disorder continued through his son George IV and Queen Victoria to the last confirmed sufferer, Elizabeth II's first cousin Prince William of Gloucester, who died in a plane crash in 1972. Germany's last kaiser, Wilhelm II, and the last Russian empress, Tsarina Alexandra--who were related to the British royal family--may also have had the disease.
Variegate porphyria is caused by a genetic mutation that affects the efficiency of an enzyme called protoporphyrinogen oxidase found in the mitochondria of cells. When this enzyme fails to work properly, excess protoporphyrinogen spills out into the surrounding cell. Scientists aren't clear what happens next, but they think that oxygen oxidises the protoporphyrinogen molecules, forming large amounts of the porphyrin "protoporphyrin" in an uncontrolled reaction.
Now a team of researchers led by Nick Jacobs at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire and Franck Dayan at the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Mississippi have discovered naturally occurring enzymes can detoxify these porphyrins. They can only do this with help from two substances in the body--glutathione, an antioxidant peptide, and the amino acid cysteine.
The team showed that an enzyme from cows called lactoperoxidase could use glutathione or cysteine to convert protoporphyrin into a more water-soluble porphyrin in a test tube. "This would, in theory, greatly improve the ability of the body to eliminate protoporphyrin, either in the urine or in the faeces," says Dayan. The results will be reported in a future issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
Enzymes that could do the same job exist in humans, the researchers believe, raising the possibility that patients could take glutathione or cysteine supplements to fight porphyria. "The stage is set for other researchers to feed people glutathione," says Dayan.
If a treatment for the disease had been available centuries ago, it may well have changed the course of history. "Because of his illness, George III did not do things he might have. He intended to rule Parliament and establish a strong monarchy," says Röhl. "Instead, the power of Parliament took rapid strides during his reign."
From New Scientist, 22 May 1999
© Copyright New Scientist, RBI Limited 2001
PREVIOUS POST:
: Friday, 4 May, 2001, 15:26 GMT 16:26 UK
: Genetically altered babies born
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1312000/1312708.stm
: An "unwelcome" development say scientists ...
: But the technique has been criticised as unethical by some
: scientists and would be illegal in many countries,
: including the United Kingdom. ...
: The additional genes were taken from a healthy donor and used
: to overcome their mother's infertility problems. ...
: Germline modification
: Altering the germline is something that the vast majority of
: scientists deem unethical given the limitations of our
: knowledge. ...
: There is no evidence that this technique is worth doing ...
: Two mothers
: They are essential to cellular energy production and
: scientists suspect they have many other important but as
: yet unappreciated roles.
: Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from generation to generation
: along the maternal line. ...
: 'Great reservations'
: British experts have severely criticised the development.
: Infertility pioneer Lord Winston of the Hammersmith Hospital
: in London told BBC News Online that he had great
: reservations about it.
: "Regarding the treatment of the infertile, there is no
: evidence that this technique is worth doing," he said.
: "I am very surprised that it was even carried out at
: this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.
: "There is no evidence that this is a possible valuable
: treatment for infertility," he added.
: Lord Winston said that, although the number of additional
: genes involved was tiny, it was in principle the wrong
: thing to do.
: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the
: body that monitors and regulates UK reproductive medical
: activities, told BBC News Online that it was aware of the
: technique but had decided not to allow it in the UK because
: of its uncertainties and the possible alteration of the
: human germline.
: Eric Juengst, of Case Western Reserve University, said:
: "It should trouble those committed to transparent
: public conversation about the prospect of using
: 'reprogenetic' technologies to shape future children."
: The US Government Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee told BBC
: News Online that the researchers had carried out this work
: without government money.
: The committee said that in no circumstances would it consider
: any request for government funds that would result in
: modification of the human germline.
