Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Mini-meiosis and Immortality.

Mini-Meiosis and Immortality
Andre Willers
15 Mar 2011

Synopsis :
Stem-cells are created by mini-meiosis during the cytokineses phase of mitosis .
The triggers are zinc-finger proteins generated by gene Prdm9 .

Discussion :
Read NewScientist 12 Feb 2011 "Evolution's X factor" p33

Essentially , gene Prdm9 denotes and triggers hotspots for chromosome crossover during meiosis by producing zinc-finger proteins .

Crucially , mutations in an intact gene Prdm9 gene (13 letters) only changes the site of the crossover . It is thus immortal , and plays the role of a meta-control .

"Proteus" would be an equally correct name .

During mitosis , mini-meiosis is triggered by the presence of some control , probably zinc-finger proteins . A certain percentage of pluripotent cells are formed but with meiosis-type crossovers of chromosomes on the crossover hotspots as designated by gene Prdm9 . You see what a can of worms it is .

The pluripotent cells are then not copies , but daughters , and should be described as chimaera's .

This gives cells the vitality to compete .

Immortality :
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "Ageing" Feb 2011

Engineering zinc-finger proteins to lock on to the Last TTAGGG telomere tag should do the trick . This should result in a pluripotent cell instead of a death .

Immortality of the moving-along sort .

Now you know as much as I do .

Long Life !

Andre

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