An unlikely mystery: studies shed new light on how genes are made Premium

Discover how genes define individuality, how new genes are created, and how evolution shapes our genome in 2024 research findings.

The alikeness of identical twins can be startling. They are alike because all their genes are alike. Genes are those segments of the genome where, if changes occur, the characteristics of an organism change. Non-identical twins vary in 50% of their genes and are much less alike. Thus, genes define our individuality in many ways.

In December 2024, two research groups addressed how new genes are created. The University of Nevada, Reno, group reported its findings in Molecular Biology and Evolution and the other, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology Plön, Germany, reported in Genome Biology and Evolution.

A group of 24 molecules of DNA gives identity to our 24 chromosomes. These are the chromosomes numbered 1 to 22 and the sex chromosomes X and Y.  Our cells contain two sets of the genome: one derived from the mother’s egg and the other from the father’s sperm. Eggs and sperm receive only one chromosome of each pair. When they fuse and form the zygote, the latter has two sets again. The zygote then multiplies to form a baby.

The cells in human bodies possess two copies of chromosomes 1-22. Biological females have two X chromosomes whereas biological males have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome.

Identical twins arise from a single zygote while non-identical twins from two zygotes produced simultaneously.

Each DNA molecule has two strands held together by bonds between compounds on the strands, called base pairs. Our genome contains 3.2 billion base-pairs. A gene is typically a few-thousand base-pair-long segment of a DNA.

When a gene is ‘expressed’, it means a cell will transcribe the underlying base pair sequence to a molecule called a messenger RNA (mRNA), and read the mRNA like a recipe to make a protein.