How genetics and environment work together to shape our destiny: Milena Georgieva at TEDxAUBG
Summary
TLDRThis presentation explores the significance of DNA in defining life, highlighting its universal structure and the groundbreaking Human Genome Project. It delves into epigenetics, explaining how environmental factors influence gene expression beyond genetic code, and emphasizes the importance of being mindful of our lifestyle choices as they can impact our DNA and future generations.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Biology is a natural science that studies life, and DNA is the fundamental molecule that makes organisms living creatures.
- 🔬 The structure of DNA was discovered about 60 years ago, and the scientists who made this discovery were awarded the Nobel Prize.
- 🧬 DNA has a consistent chemical composition across almost all organisms, consisting of four letters: C, A, T, and G.
- 🧬🧬 The sequencing of the human genome, which involves determining the order of the four DNA letters, is a massive task with over three billion letters in human DNA.
- 🌐 The Human Genome Project, completed at the beginning of the new millennium, was a monumental effort involving thousands of scientists across multiple countries.
- 🐒 The genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees is only 1.5%, highlighting the importance of understanding how similar genomes can result in different expressions.
- 🧠 The question of what makes DNA express differently in different organisms is a central focus in modern biology, moving beyond just the DNA sequence itself.
- 🧬💻 DNA is not just a biological molecule; it's also seen as the 'hardware' of our biological systems, with epigenetics acting as the 'software' that controls gene expression.
- 🌱 Epigenetics, which means 'beyond DNA', provides information that is not coded in our genes and controls how our genome is expressed.
- 🌿 Environmental factors such as diet, lifestyle, and even social interactions can influence our epigenetics, affecting how our DNA is expressed and potentially impacting future generations.
- 🔬🧪 Research in molecular biology labs is focused on understanding how various stress conditions, including UV radiation and food additives, affect DNA and the epigenome.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the presentation?
-The main topic of the presentation is the role of DNA in defining living organisms and the importance of understanding its structure and function in the field of biology.
What is the significance of DNA according to the speaker?
-DNA is significant because it is the universal molecule present in every living cell, serving as the 'language of life' and determining the characteristics of all organisms.
What was a major scientific achievement related to DNA about 60 years ago?
-About 60 years ago, the structure of DNA was discovered, which led to the Nobel Prize being awarded to the scientists who made this groundbreaking discovery.
What is the human genome sequencing?
-Human genome sequencing is the process of determining the exact order of the four chemical bases (A, T, C, and G) along the DNA strand, which amounts to about three billion letters in the human genome.
When was the first draft of the human genome project announced?
-The first draft of the human genome project was announced at the beginning of the new millennium, approximately 50 years after the discovery of DNA's structure.
What is the genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees as mentioned in the script?
-The genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees is only 1.5%, indicating a high degree of genetic similarity between the two species.
What is the main question that scientists started asking after the sequencing of the human genome?
-The main question scientists started asking was why the same DNA functions differently in different organisms and what makes us different despite having similar genomes.
What is epigenetics and how does it relate to our DNA?
-Epigenetics is the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. It means 'beyond DNA' and provides information that controls and regulates our genome, telling identical genomes to express differently.
How does the environment influence our epigenome?
-The environment influences our epigenome through various stimuli such as diet, lifestyle, and social interactions, which can affect gene expression and potentially lead to changes that are passed on to future generations.
What does the speaker suggest as a way to be responsible for our DNA?
-The speaker suggests being aware of the impact of our lifestyle and environment on our epigenome, and making choices that promote health and well-being, as these can influence the genetic information transmitted to our descendants.
What role do food colorants have in the context of DNA health according to the speaker's research?
-According to the speaker's research, certain food colorants such as Fast Green, Indigo Carmine, and Erythrosine can cause extensive DNA damage when healthy cells are treated with them, indicating that they should be used cautiously.
Outlines
🧬 The Language of Life: DNA
The speaker begins by expressing gratitude to the event organizers and introduces the topic of biology, emphasizing its universal relevance as it pertains to all living beings. They pose a question about what makes organisms alive, suggesting that DNA is the fundamental component. The speaker explains that DNA, with its consistent structure across various life forms, is the 'language of life.' They highlight the significance of understanding DNA's structure, mentioning the Nobel Prize awarded for its discovery. The summary of the human genome project is provided, emphasizing its scale and international collaboration. The speaker concludes this section by discussing the genetic similarity between humans and other organisms, such as chimpanzees, and introduces the concept that what makes us unique is not just our DNA sequence but how it is expressed, setting the stage for the next topic: epigenetics.
🌱 Epigenetics: Beyond the DNA Sequence
The second paragraph delves into the concept of epigenetics, which is described as information 'beyond the DNA sequence.' The speaker illustrates that while all cells in the human body contain the same DNA, they differentiate into various types with specific functions, suggesting an external influence on gene expression. The analogy of DNA as hardware and epigenetics as software is used to explain how our bodies function. The speaker discusses how identical twins, despite their genetic similarity, can develop differences over time due to epigenetic changes. The role of the environment in influencing the epigenome is highlighted, with stress, diet, and lifestyle being key factors. The speaker also touches on the heritability of epigenetic changes across generations. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding and managing our epigenome for health and disease prevention.
🔬 The Impact of Environment on Our Genome
In the final paragraph, the speaker, identifying as a molecular biologist, discusses the laboratory's research into how environmental factors influence the genome and epigenome. They describe an experiment involving human cells and DNA damage under various stress conditions, such as UV radiation and exposure to certain food colorants. The 'comet assay' is introduced as a method to visualize and quantify DNA damage. The speaker warns of the potential harm caused by common food additives and emphasizes the importance of being mindful of what we consume. The paragraph concludes with a broader reflection on how various aspects of our lives, including social and economic factors, can impact our epigenome and, by extension, our health. The speaker leaves the audience with a message of responsibility towards our genetic legacy, urging them to consider the long-term implications of their lifestyle choices on future generations.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Biology
💡DNA
💡Genome
💡Human Genome Project
💡Evolutionary Trait
💡Epigenetics
💡Gene Expression
💡Epigenome
💡Genetic Difference
💡Stress Conditions
💡DNA Damage
Highlights
Biology is a natural science that deals with life.
DNA is the language of life, present in every living organism.
The structure of DNA was discovered about 60 years ago, earning a Nobel Prize.
DNA has a consistent chemical composition across different organisms.
The human genome project was completed 50 years after the discovery of DNA's structure.
Human DNA contains three billion letters, making genome sequencing a massive task.
Genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees are only 1.5%.
Epigenetics controls how genes are expressed, beyond the DNA sequence.
Identical twins can differ epigenetically over time, affecting susceptibility to diseases.
DNA is organized with proteins in the nucleus, influencing epigenetic information.
Environmental factors such as stress, diet, and lifestyle can affect epigenetics.
Epigenetics is a bridge between the genome and the environment.
Recent advances in epigenetics are revolutionizing bioscience.
Epigenetic changes can influence health and combat diseases.
Molecular biology labs study how different factors influence the genome and epigenome.
DNA damage can be observed and quantified under a microscope, indicating health risks.
Food colorants can cause extensive DNA damage, affecting health.
Responsibility for one's DNA is crucial, as it impacts future generations.
Transcripts
so hello everybody
so first of all i'd like to thank the
organizers for this wonderful event and
for the opportunity
to get familiar to make you familiar
with the language that i
really talk
so
what i'm going to talk about is
biology and we all know that biology is
a natural science that deals with life
so probably i might be talking your
language because we all are living
creatures
and let me start my presentation with a
simple question and it's what makes
organisms living creatures and i'm
pretty sure that every one of you in the
audience has his own
answer someone will say it's the brain
others will say it's the heart
and
i'm going to convince you that
the answer is much simpler and it's dna
every living organism every cell has dna
bacteria have dna
yeast have dna so do any plants and
humans
and dna is the language of our life so
we always speaking the same language
and
undoubtedly knowing the structure of
this important molecule this is the most
important molecule in nature
is of high priority for all scientists
so and
there's no surprise that when the
structure of dna has been discovered
about 60 years ago scientists that have
discovered the structure have received a
nobel prize
what's important about this molecule is
that
it has one and the same structure
chemical composition in almost all cells
in almost
all organisms it's quite a perfect
and very refined molecule it has four
letters
and they are
c a t g
and they are arranged all along the dna
strand
uniquely for every one of us
and knowing the exact order of all these
four letters all along the human dna is
what is called sequencing of the genome
knowing all these
ordering of the four letters
and just have in mind that human dna has
three billions of these letters so it's
quite a huge task
and
at the beginning
okay
of the new millennium the first draft of
the human genome project has been
announced
and
it was about 50 years after the
discovery of
the structure of dna
it was a huge project a billion dollar
project that united efforts of more than
2.5 000 scientists
located in more than 20 laboratories in
six different countries so it's it's a
huge and tremendous project and he was
completed just at the celebration of the
50 years after of the discovery of the
structure of dna
and this celebration was crowned by this
major scientific event
so now we know that
we have another
four letters
along the dna code and
scientists
run for sequencing of other genomes just
to follow the evolutionary trait of
different organisms so the genome of the
monkeys have been
sequenced of the honeybees as well of
the dogs and the chickens even of the
chimpanzees and when the genome of the
chimpanzees
have been
compared to our genome
guess what
the genetic difference was only 1.5
which means that by dna we are pretty
much identical but by look
by appearance by the things we do we are
different i think so at least in some
cases
so what tells identical almost similar
genomes to express differently how dna
knows which genes to switch on and which
to switch off and how these little
differences are expressed so vastly in
different organisms
what makes us different is the main
question that
scientists started asking themselves
after the sequencing of the human genome
why the dna
is not our destiny why one in the same
dna functions pretty different
and i think that we are about to answer
some of these questions and it's about
to start a fourth revolution and this
revolution will concern our health and
it will concern our
way of living even our way of producing
energy as well
it is it is a tremendous
discovery and
have in mind that we all start from a
single cell
human body has more than 100 trillion
cells and they're specialized in more
than 300 distinct types
each type is specialized in specific
functions and cells of a specific of a
specific type form tissues and they form
our organs and thus a human body is
formed
this cell can go this way and can turn
into a lung cell for example
or it can go this way
and can turn into a brain cell
there is another option and
it can be this way
and this cell will become a skin cell
have in mind that all these cells are
specialized in quite different functions
in our body
but they do have same dna
which means that their genome is the
same they have identical genomes
obviously there's something in this
house that tells with genes to be
switched on and with genes to be
switched off
and the main question is
what is this
let's imagine that we are computers
logically dna is our hardware in order
to function well this hardware needs
proper software programs in order to
drive the hardware
the main question is which of these
software programs for our body which are
the software programs for each of these
different cell types
that tell them which genes to work and
which not
the answer is the epigenetics
and
what does epigenetics mean
literally it means beyond the dna
sequence it means beyond dna and our
genomes it provides information which is
not coded in our genes
it's something outside that regulates
and that controls our genome
and practically
sorry
practically it tells identical genomes
to express differently
have identical twins as an example they
do look alike and they genetically are
identical
but with the time
with the age they start differing
differing epigenetically which means
that they are susceptible to different
diseases and in some cases they do die
by different diseases
dna
in our cells is not naked it's located
in the nucleus
and is organized with proteins and these
proteins together with dna are
transmitting this epigenetic information
and they do tell which genes to work and
which not
so it means that the lives of our
grandparents the food they ate
the air they breeded
the actions they did did they smoke or
didn't
even the things they saw could affect us
decades later
and moreover we can pass and transmit
this information to our descendants
and can affect our children
grandchildren and grand-grandchildren
as i told you
epigenetics
is something
above and beyond the genome
and the genome and the epigenome cannot
exist separately
and the bridge between them is the
environment
hey okay
it's the environment so
okay
this is stress and it's also influencing
my epigenetics and in our lives
in our lives during our life we are
under extensive stress and this
environment of stimuli can be our diet
can be the way we live can be even the
people who we interact with and this
environment of stimuli are affecting our
genome
through the epigenome
which means that the epigenetics is
bridging the interaction between the
genome and the surrounding environment
and as i told you
there is another genetics burst in the
recent years
and this is
a real revolution in the field of
bioscience
all these books are scientifical and
also science fictional and they do aim
to make you familiar with the way that
you can change your genome by
influencing your epigenome by changing
your environment by changing your way of
living and thus
trying to be
healthier
trying to
combat different diseases ideals with
aging
it deals with the way
we take food
which means that the epigenetics is the
real genie in our genes it controls the
way they work
as
i'm a molecular biologist and i come
from a molecular genetics lab our aim is
to try to probe to try to study
how different
factors and conditions are influencing
our genome and epigenome
and if this is the human cell
and this is the place where dna sits
what we observe
in our laboratory
is how
this dna
is influenced by different
stress conditions
these different trans conditions can be
uv radiation
it can be different food
substitutes it can be drugs and
whatever
and if we put
this cell on the mild electric field
what we see
is that when dna is damaged
dna
is extended toward the anode and thus
forms
a comet like image
which is observed
under a microscope
this is a cell
and
it has a lot of dna damage here is the
place where the intact the healthy dna
is
located and here is the tail and this
tail tells us that there is a lot of dna
damages in this cell
and there are methods for quantifying
these results and they do tell us how to
treat our dna in order to be healthy and
in order to manage in different stress
conditions
some of our results deal with food
colorants food additives and
preservatives that we regularly use in
our daily practice
we have tested a lot of them but i'm
gonna give you the results with some
food colorants like fast green indigo
carmine and erythrozine
this colorant gives the green color this
one gives the blue color and this one
gives the red color of our sweets and
when we treat healthy cells
with these
three colorants what we observe is
extensive dna damage which means that we
should be very careful
when we use them in our daily practice
moreover we also experiencing the way
different
all kinds of stress conditions are
influencing our genome through the
epigenome
and we're monitoring the way the
environment is influencing our epi
genome the way gender even the age the
food and the drugs that we daily uptake
all the social factors the economic
factors
which means that we are experiencing the
way we live is influencing our happy
genome
and
the today home message that i'm going to
leave you with is to try to be
responsible for your dna because all
these genetic and epigenetic information
you transmit to your descendants
and you can transmit this information
even to your grand grandchildren
which means they can
be influenced by things that they
haven't even experienced in their lives
so with this
i'm gonna thank you for your attention
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
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