http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4377898.stm
reveals that the ignition key to life has been discovered. It's rather
fitting that such a vital gene was discovered in Bath, England, site of
ancient Roman baths which purportedly had a revitalising effect!
"Scientists have found the gene responsible for controlling a first key
step in the creation of new life. The HIRA gene is involved in the
events necessary for the fertilisation that take place once a sperm
enters an egg. Faults in this gene might explain why some couples
struggle to get pregnant despite having healthy sperm, say the
researchers from the UK and France....
"Lead researcher Dr Tim Karr, from the University of Bath, said:
"All sexually reproducing animals do the same kind of DNA 'dance' when
the DNA from the mother's egg cell and the father's sperm cell meet for
the first time. When the sperm enters the egg, its DNA has to undergo
a complete transformation so that it can properly join with the female
DNA to form a genetically complete new life. Sperm makes this change
by swapping the type of 'packing material, known as histone proteins,
it contains. The result is called the male pronucleus, which can then
combine with the female pronucleus. The process is controlled by the
HIRA gene."
This fact was learned by closely observing fruit flies, which use the
same process that humans do. This could only be true if macro
evolution had occurred, nudging a common ancestor into speciation which
in one line of descendents led to fruit flies and in another line led
to us.
Budikka
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