Blogging the Human Genome

At its peak in the late 1950s, the PNG epidemic killed 200 tribal members per year, the proportional equivalent of 1.5 million U.S. deaths. Strangely, though, while many victims died as children, some people exposed to prions lived four decades or more before succumbing. And some people who consumed tainted brains never showed any symptoms. DNA explained the discrepancy. More than three-fourths of the long-term survivors had two different versions of the prion gene. (The difference was in the gene?s 129th DNA triplet: One version read A-T-G, one G-T-G.) Both versions produced healthy, functioning proteins, despite their slightly different shapes. The shapes made a difference only when people ate tainted brains, and faced an invasion of the infectious vampire prions. While the bad prions could latch onto one of the two shapes just fine, the other shape could shrug them off and avoid corruption. Overall, then, having two different versions of the prion gene slowed the destruction down.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=837d764110ca6ed7b7a036029fb21213

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