1EDAR370A Gene
On experiments with mice researchers discovered that mutation in EDAR370A gene causes thicker hair, smaller mammary fat pads, and more sweat glands. This mutation is found in many East Asians.
2. About 20-40% of the human population does not have the gene that lets people detect the smell of cyanide.
3. A boy in the UK is the only one in the world to have a condition called Hamish Syndrome (which is named after him). This condition causes one of his kidneys to be located in his leg. Both kidneys are fully functional and are believed to be caused by a missing chromosome named 7p22.1
4. The gene Zbtb7 which is responsible for the proliferation of cancer throughout surrounding cells, was originally named "Pokémon". It is a backronym for "POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor." The Pokémon Company threatened legal action because they believed it to be bad press.
5. Some people’s earwax is different from others, and the wetness of it is determined by your 16th chromosome.
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6Tetrachromatic Super Vision
Some women can have a genetic mutation that causes them to gain a 4th color-vision cone in their eyes, allowing them to see millions of more colors.
7. The river-dwelling Mexican Tetra fish is capable of regenerating its heart tissue with no scarring. The genes that are responsible for this are named iirc10 and caveolin. These genes are also present in in humans. Scientists believe these genes can be activated to regenerate heart tissue in us as well.
8. There is a mutation in the HTR2B gene called "the violent gene" that’s exclusive to Finnish men which makes them way more violent and aggressive than others when intoxicated.
9. In 1994, scientists were able to isolate a specific mutation of the breast cancer gene BRCA2 after mapping the genome of the entire population of Iceland (just under 335,000 citizens).
10. A young man named Brenden Adams has a unique disorder of the 12th chromosome causing uncontrollable growth during his teenage years and making him grow to 7'8" by the age of 18.
11Happy Puppet Syndrome
‘Happy Puppet’ syndrome or Angelman Syndrome causes patients to flap their hands uncontrollably and laugh. It is now known to be a genetic disorder resulting from a mutation on chromosome 15. Though the sufferers have a happy demeanor and have easily excitable personality, it is a debilitating disease with symptoms such as microcephaly, seizures and motor problems.
12. About 55% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, most often before a woman misses a menstrual period or even knows she is pregnant. More than 80% of miscarriages occur within the first three months of pregnancy. This is mostly caused by chromosomal abnormalities.
13. In 1962, scientists discovered a limit to how many times human cells can divide before they become exhausted. They also discovered telomeres, which cap the ends of chromosomes and prevent them from fraying. Telomeres shorten each time a cell divides and when they get short enough, a cell stops dividing.
14. While female X chromosomes get mixed and reshuffled, Y chromosomes get passed down untouched, resulting in the grandfather, father, and son having identical Y chromosomes.
15. Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome causes a person with XY chromosomes externally to develop to be identical to XX girls/women. A vagina is present but no uterus. It is often undetected until a lack of first menstruation is noted.
16Asbestos Cancer Theory
One of the leading hypotheses on why asbestos causes cancer is that it’s extremely thin fibers get physically tangled in your chromosomes, leading to strand breaks and mutations.
17. Exposure to particles from burning candles causes greater damage than the same dose of diesel exhaust fumes. Effects included lung inflammation and toxicity, arteriosclerosis, and aging effects on chromosomes in the lungs and spleen.
18. The Y chromosome has been degenerating over the past 300 million years of its existence, and might one day go extinct. The male gender, however, probably won't.
19. 50-60% of drug addiction risk is genetically inherited.
20. Ectopia Cordis is a rare genetic defect that develops in fetuses in utero. Their chest wall doesn't form correctly. It also doesn't fuse as it normally would. This prevents the heart from developing where it should, leaving it defenseless and exposed. 90% of babies don't survive.
21Alana Saarinen
Alana Saarinen is a girl with 3 biological parents. Alana’s nuclear DNA is from her mother and father, with mitochondrial DNA from another woman. This procedure has now been banned due to safety and ethical concerns.
22. The chances of you being you, taking into account eggs, sperm, ancestry, etc., is equivalent to 2 million people each rolling a trillion-sided die, and each person rolling precisely the same number (approximately 1 in 10^2,685,000).
23. Every fetus is a female in the uterus until receiving the “Y” chromosome. If the sperm has a Y chromosome, your baby will be a boy. If it has an X chromosome, the baby will be a girl. If it is a boy, in the further stages of fetal development, when the testosterone kicks in, the cells begin to change in the genitals, but the nipples remain. That's why men have nipples.
24. Color blindness is carried on the "X" chromosome. Since women have two of them, they won't be colorblind as often as men who only have one.
25. Snatiation is a genetically-transmitted condition in which people sneeze after eating a meal and becoming full.
