Real Talk!

I started out, wondering if crude oil contained DNA. I was thinking of how many things we use that have an oil base and how much DNA that could mean. Of course, I thought a little about “Jurassic Park” and Dinosaur DNA and so, I GOOGLED.

I got involved with thermophilic bacterium strain C2, which has the ability to transform crude oils…and how DNA extraction from crude oil was performed by the method using zirconia beads and a stool kit. and still, I didn’t really have an answer. Obviously, there is DNA in the oil… but it would appear to be bacteria DNA.

So, I read this big long scientific study about oil and how it really isn’t dead dinosaurs. I read about how Neanderthal DNA is being extracted from fossilized bones. So far, only 1 million of the 3 billion DNA letters of the genome have been sequenced and the authors of one report are saying that it proves the complete sequence is attainable.

Then I went on a cruise of cellular memory. It seems that the molecular and cellular basis of long-term T cell memory against viral antigens remains undefined. Studies also indicate that following transfer, in the absence of antigen, memory B-cell populations are lost from the adoptive host after 10–12 weeks.

Alloreactive memory T cells participate in transplant rejection is driving new lines of research focusing on understanding the immunobiology of alloreactive memory T cells and on designing novel therapies to specifically target memory T cells.

When I got to :

"Immune responses to EBV in immunosuppressed (IS) solid organ transplant (SOTx) recipients have not been well characterized. Here we evaluate the phenotype and function of EBV-specific CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood isolated from "stable" IS SOTx recipients. The EBV-specific CD8+ T cell memory subset distribution in the peripheral blood of patients was examined by flow cytometric analysis using HLA-A2 tetramers incorporating BMLF1 (lytic), and LMP2 and EBNA3A (latent)-derived peptides, in conjunction with mAbs against the CD45RO, CD45RA, and CD62L markers. The ability of CD8+ T cells to produce IFN-gamma in response to the same EBV-derived peptides was measured by ELISPOT assay. Patients and healthy normal donors exhibited similar anti-EBV CD8+ T cell frequencies and specificities against the EBV epitopes evaluated. When compared to healthy normal donors, an overall significant expansion of the CD8+ T cell "effector memory" (CD45RO+/CD62L-) pool, including that of EBV "latent" (LMP2 and EBNA3A)-specific CD8+ T cells was detected in IS SOTx patients. However, the patients' EBV-specific CD8+ T cells showed decreased IFN-gamma production to the EBV-peptide stimulation."

I had to quit! What in the heck was I reading this stuff for?

It was interesting to read the stories of various people who had been the recipient of donor organs and who claimed, postoperative acquisition of some characteristics of the donor person.

Medical opinion is skeptical and varied when it comes to saying that organ recipients might gain more than just a lifeline from their transplants... but there was some wild stuff about a professor of medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery from the University of Arizona, who says his research team has found definite links of what they call 'cellular memory' and he has documented some 70 cases where he believes transplant recipients have inherited the traits of their donors.

Prof Schwartz said: "When the organ is placed in the recipient, the information and energy stored in the organ is passed on to the recipient. The theory applies to any organ that has cells that are interconnected. They could be kidneys, liver and even muscles.

"The stories we have uncovered are very compelling and are completely consistent."

His studies have found that heart transplant patients are the most likely to experience personality changes.

So, I started thinking about the shelf life of a cell. How long does each type of cell live?

I found the following statistics:

Skin cells: from 1 to 34 days
Stomach lining cells: 2 days
Red blood cells: 120 days
Liver cells: 500 days
Bone cells: 25 to 30 years
Brain cells: may live as long as you live.

Was it possible that feelings of "deja vu" were something attached to genetics? Was it possible that all of this stuff about "past lives" and reincarnation was attributable to inherited genes? I read one study that concluded that fetuses had a short-term memory of at least ten minutes and a long-term memory of at least twenty-four hours.

Then, there was the study of colour genetics in Icelandic Sheep!

There are all kinds of Family Tree DNA studies and forums. They focus on either the Patrilineal, shown by the Y chromosome which is passed whole and intact (except for rare mutations) from father to son, down through thousands of generations, from Noah to us or the Matrilineal, shown by the mitochondrial DNA which is passed whole and intact (except for rare mutations) from mother to children, down through even more thousands of generations, from Eve to us.

I think the creepiest thing that I came across was a comparison of genomes and what percentage of genes we share with other organisms.

Human to yeast about 30%
Human to worm about 40%
Human to banana about 50%
Human to fruit fly about 60%
Human to mouse about 90%
Human to chimp about 98.4%
Human to human about 99.9% (except for twins, whose genes are 100% identical)

I stopped completely after I read a report dated last April, in which paleontologists working in northern Canada announced that they had found a skeleton that may be the bridge between fish and four-legged land animals. The 375-million-year-old creature had a head like a crocodile, a body built for swimming and front legs that were some sort of cross between fins and feet.

It sounded a little too much like a guy I knew, in high school.