• Question: What do you find fascinating about genetics and what is your favourite element/idea about DNA?

    Asked by to Tomas, Judith, Gemma, Aoife on 3 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Gemma Chandratillake

      Gemma Chandratillake answered on 3 Jan 2019:

      That DNA is the fundamental code of life, and that it’s readable to us. I love the fact that the molecule carries it’s own template for replication i.e. that it is double stranded and that the strands are complementary so can be copied to make more molecules; it’s so fundamentally simple and elegant!

      My favourite thing to explain to people is about X-chromosome inactivation in females by explaining that all tortoiseshell cats are female…

    • Photo: Tomas Fitzgerald

      Tomas Fitzgerald answered on 3 Jan 2019:

      Im a structural variation enthusiast and still find in fascinating that large amounts of DNA can be lost or gained from genomes without causing adverse phenotypes. In terms of actual base pairs differences between human genomes structural variation and differences in copy number account of the most differences observed. How these changes are promoted and regulated involving elements such as transposons or repetitive elements in general is a particular area of interest to me.

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