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The Smiling Axolotl Hides a Secret: A Giant Genome
Image
The axolotl is an salamander whose genome has 32 billion base pairs, ten times the number in the human genome and the largest ever sequenced.CreditResearch Institute of Molecular Pathology
By Nicholas Bakalar
Feb. 1, 2018
Leer en español
Scientists have decoded the genome of the axolotl, the Mexican amphibian with a Mona Lisa smile. It has 32 billion base pairs, which makes it ten times the size of the human genome, and the largest genome ever sequenced.
The axolotl, endangered in the wild, has been bred in laboratories and studied for more than 150 years. It has the remarkable capacity to regrow amputated limbs complete with bones, muscles and nerves; to heal wounds without producing scar tissue; and even to regenerate damaged internal organs.
This salamander can heal a crushed spinal cord and have it function just like it did before it was damaged. This ability, which exists to such an extent in no other animal, makes its genes of considerable interest.
Now researchers, using one genetic sequencing technique to do their analysis and then another to “proof read” it, have provided researchers with the tools to study and manipulate the genes of the axolotl. Their study appears in Nature.
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“The techniques in this paper are all at the cutting edge,” said Ryan Kerney, a biologist at Gettysburg College who has published widely on amphibian genetics but was not involved in this study. “And the data they generated are incredibly thorough for any genome, much less one this large.”
This is the first salamander genome ever sequenced. The reason it took so long is that it has so many repetitive parts, according to Elly M. Tanaka, a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna and senior author of the new study. The study was a huge computational effort, requiring techniques developed expressly for the purpose.
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“We want to understand the huge changes in the RNA and proteins that the cells produce to change from an adult cell to a stem cell,” Dr. Tanaka said. “How does an injury cause such a huge change? We can’t understand that without knowing how different parts of the genome are used to change how cells behave.”
The researchers have identified some of the genes involved in regeneration, and some genes that exist only in the axolotl, but there is much work still to be done.
“The adventure is just starting,” Dr. Tanaka said. “Completing the genome will open up a wealth of opportunities in studying how organisms regenerate. We’re just as excited as people were when they first decoded the human genome.”
Image
The axolotl is an salamander whose genome has 32 billion base pairs, ten times the number in the human genome and the largest ever sequenced.CreditResearch Institute of Molecular Pathology
By Nicholas Bakalar
Feb. 1, 2018
Leer en español
Scientists have decoded the genome of the axolotl, the Mexican amphibian with a Mona Lisa smile. It has 32 billion base pairs, which makes it ten times the size of the human genome, and the largest genome ever sequenced.
The axolotl, endangered in the wild, has been bred in laboratories and studied for more than 150 years. It has the remarkable capacity to regrow amputated limbs complete with bones, muscles and nerves; to heal wounds without producing scar tissue; and even to regenerate damaged internal organs.
This salamander can heal a crushed spinal cord and have it function just like it did before it was damaged. This ability, which exists to such an extent in no other animal, makes its genes of considerable interest.
Now researchers, using one genetic sequencing technique to do their analysis and then another to “proof read” it, have provided researchers with the tools to study and manipulate the genes of the axolotl. Their study appears in Nature.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The techniques in this paper are all at the cutting edge,” said Ryan Kerney, a biologist at Gettysburg College who has published widely on amphibian genetics but was not involved in this study. “And the data they generated are incredibly thorough for any genome, much less one this large.”
This is the first salamander genome ever sequenced. The reason it took so long is that it has so many repetitive parts, according to Elly M. Tanaka, a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna and senior author of the new study. The study was a huge computational effort, requiring techniques developed expressly for the purpose.
You have 4 free articles remaining.
Subscribe to The Times
“We want to understand the huge changes in the RNA and proteins that the cells produce to change from an adult cell to a stem cell,” Dr. Tanaka said. “How does an injury cause such a huge change? We can’t understand that without knowing how different parts of the genome are used to change how cells behave.”
The researchers have identified some of the genes involved in regeneration, and some genes that exist only in the axolotl, but there is much work still to be done.
“The adventure is just starting,” Dr. Tanaka said. “Completing the genome will open up a wealth of opportunities in studying how organisms regenerate. We’re just as excited as people were when they first decoded the human genome.”
