Mitochondrial Madness
Issue date: 12/2/09 Section: Features
By Alaina Grantham
Rotunda Reporter
Last summer my mom, sister and I miraculously had the same day off work and in traditional home-school fashion, decided to go to a museum. After a brief debate settled by rock paper scissors, we decided to go to the National Museum of Health and Medicine at the Walter Reed Military Base in Bethesda, Md.
As a biologist, I had wanted to go to this museum for years, ever since I had learned about the five-pound hairball on display standing as a constant reminder to all little girls who would chew their hair. In spite of my excitement, my mother , the history major; and my sister, the business major ,were not as excited for a day filled with science as I was, but we were still happy to be going on a museum adventure together.
Once we arrived at the museum, we followed the crowd past displays on medical history, plastic surgery and heart disease. Eventually, we ended up in front of the exhibit that explained identification of remains: specifically, the remains of fallen soldiers.
The exhibit outlined the history of identification and showed its application during wars the United States had participated in. It started with visual identification, continued with dental records and finally ended with DNA identification, which in the absence of a comparative DNA samples uses mitochondrial DNA.
Because this is all the display said on the subject of mitochondrial DNA, I, being the somewhat nerdy science geek I am, started to explain to my family how it could be used in the identification of unknown persons.
Mitochondrial DNA is different from nuclear DNA, so different that scientists suggest that the primitive mitochondria invaded early cells and brought its own DNA with it. This theory, supported by physical characteristics of the mitochondrial DNA, suggests that after the initial invasion both the cell and the mitochondria developed a symbiotic relationship over the millennia until they work so seamlessly together that they are considered one entity. Where the nuclear DNA provides the bulk of genetic material, the mitochondria provide the energy for the cell to survive.
Rotunda Reporter
Last summer my mom, sister and I miraculously had the same day off work and in traditional home-school fashion, decided to go to a museum. After a brief debate settled by rock paper scissors, we decided to go to the National Museum of Health and Medicine at the Walter Reed Military Base in Bethesda, Md.
As a biologist, I had wanted to go to this museum for years, ever since I had learned about the five-pound hairball on display standing as a constant reminder to all little girls who would chew their hair. In spite of my excitement, my mother , the history major; and my sister, the business major ,were not as excited for a day filled with science as I was, but we were still happy to be going on a museum adventure together.
Once we arrived at the museum, we followed the crowd past displays on medical history, plastic surgery and heart disease. Eventually, we ended up in front of the exhibit that explained identification of remains: specifically, the remains of fallen soldiers.
The exhibit outlined the history of identification and showed its application during wars the United States had participated in. It started with visual identification, continued with dental records and finally ended with DNA identification, which in the absence of a comparative DNA samples uses mitochondrial DNA.
Because this is all the display said on the subject of mitochondrial DNA, I, being the somewhat nerdy science geek I am, started to explain to my family how it could be used in the identification of unknown persons.
Mitochondrial DNA is different from nuclear DNA, so different that scientists suggest that the primitive mitochondria invaded early cells and brought its own DNA with it. This theory, supported by physical characteristics of the mitochondrial DNA, suggests that after the initial invasion both the cell and the mitochondria developed a symbiotic relationship over the millennia until they work so seamlessly together that they are considered one entity. Where the nuclear DNA provides the bulk of genetic material, the mitochondria provide the energy for the cell to survive.
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Museumaholic
posted 12/03/09 @ 9:16 AM EST
The National Museum of Health and Medicine is in Washington, D.C., not Bethesda.
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