The "It's In Your Genes" Myth - 2

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Humans Have Multiple Genomes

There have been many posts in the Dredd Blog System which cover the recent discoveries about the human genome and the human microbiome.

These posts cover a lot of different issues.

They range anywhere from One Man's Junk Gene Is Another Man's Treasure Gene? and Microbial Hermeneutics - 3 to The Human Microbiome Congress, but the gist of these types of posts has been to point out that human genes make up only about 2% of the human microbiome, while microbial genes make up about 98%.

Today let's talk about a new twist, which is that there may be even more uncertainty about our genetic identity:

From biology class to “C.S.I.,” we are told again and again that our genome is at the heart of our identity. Read the sequences in the chromosomes of a single cell, and learn everything about a person’s genetic information — or, as 23andme, a prominent genetic testing company, says on its Web site, “The more you know about your DNA, the more you know about yourself.”

But scientists are discovering that — to a surprising degree — we contain genetic multitudes. Not long ago, researchers had thought it was rare for the cells in a single healthy person to differ genetically in a significant way. But scientists are finding that it’s quite common for an individual to have multiple genomes. Some people, for example, have groups of cells with mutations that are not found in the rest of the body. Some have genomes that came from other people.

(DNA Double Take). That immediately makes we wonder if any people have been falsely convicted or falsely freed because of the scientific assumptions that are now being questioned:

Medical researchers aren’t the only scientists interested in our multitudes of personal genomes. So are forensic scientists. When they attempt to identify criminals or murder victims by matching DNA, they want to avoid being misled by the variety of genomes inside a single person.

Last year, for example, forensic scientists at the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory Division described how a saliva sample and a sperm sample from the same suspect in a sexual assault case didn’t match.

(ibid, "DNA Double Take"). That is all our troubled judiciary needs, thousands of cases up in the air.

Anyway, you might want to consider the Dredd Blog tongue-in-cheek adage about buying stocks in textbook publishing companies (see e.g. Textbooks Take Another Hit - 2 and The Appendix of Vestigial Textbooks - 4).

Happy Constitution Day!

The previous post in this series is here.