4chan archive /sci/ (index)
2012-09-06 03:14 5031145 GOMADWarrior (1299127984309.jpg 352x259 40kB)
if there was a way to change my dna after birth what would happen? the same change in every cell's dna...

5 min later 5031154 Anonymous
No.

8 min later 5031159 Anonymous
if there was a way to change my dna after birth what would happen? you would have different dna

10 min later 5031165 Anonymous
irradiate! Very very accurately.

13 min later 5031167 Anonymous
>>5031145 each cell is distinct. you would probably just create cancerous tumors anywhere you fucked with. autoimmune response diseases suck too. imagine having transplant rejection of your own organs or skin.

23 min later 5031186 Anonymous
Accelerated aging.

38 min later 5031223 Anonymous
There is no code a virus cannot change.

1 hours later 5031382 GOMADWarrior
>>5031167 why

1 hours later 5031395 Anonymous
There is a way and your DNA does change. Sunlight can change your DNA. What happens? Cancer

21 hours later 5033382 Anonymous
>>5031167 Could someone mess with the reproductive DNA to produce the cells you want, let them grow in a controlled environment, then change them all back? Or have the cancerous cells reproduce noncancerous cells, then stop the original cancer cells when you have enough cells?

21 hours later 5033409 Anonymous
How does a DNA strand change?

21 hours later 5033431 Anonymous
Obviously you couldn't change things that have already grown, but you could change ongoing processes. Some genetic diseases are treated using gene therapy: you can use retroviruses (google them) to insert changes into living cells. It's still really experimental though.

21 hours later 5033449 Anonymous
>>5031145 No data for this, simply because it cant happen. However, as has been mentioned here already. Using retroviruses in order to insert upstream retrotransposons which will typically code for abnormal RNA which can essentially activate/deactivate pre-present genes that aren't functioning properly; I also believe there's currently trials for complete additions or changes to active genes. But this is used to treat things like cystic fibrosis and is in no way used to completely change "all" your DNA. Anyway, we can speculate simply that you would no longer code for proteins properly and die pretty fast. Not fun.

21 hours later 5033463 Anonymous
I'm not a biologist but I did go to a genetics seminar where it was mentioned that DNA does change throughout your lifetime.

21 hours later 5033471 Anonymous
>>5033463 It doesnt. You might be referencing epigenetics (e.g methylation of DNA causing genes to be "switched off"), but that's nothing like what the OP is talking about.

21 hours later 5033485 Zoologist
>>5033409 Happens all the time through transcription and replication errors. Every time your cells divide, they make another copy. Considering they are copying "over 3 billion" (thanks wikipedia...) base pairs, and that you have 10 trillion cells, of which, a certain proportion are dividing RIGHT NOW ( if it was .001%, that would still be 100 million cells), that is 300 quadrillion things that all need to be copied in exactly the right order. Take into account that the human mutation rate is estimated at one mutation per one billion base pairs, that's 300 million mistakes. Lucky for us that most mutations tend to be neutral. (Mutation rates for germ cell lines are, apparently, higher, so every time you produce sperm....)

21 hours later 5033496 Anonymous
>>5033485 thanks.now I understand cancer better

21 hours later 5033497 Zoologist
>>5033471 Somatic cells still replicate and divide throughout a persons lifetime, which allows opportunity for mutation. It's not mutation that's going to be passed to the person's offspring, but it is still mutation, nonetheless.

21 hours later 5033514 Anonymous
>>5033471 Maybe it was the genome.

22 hours later 5033543 SAGEGOESINALLFIELDS
Well, you can change your DNA in one cell, and that cell could adopt the new features you've put in it. To make every cell adopt the change in DNA, is currently impossible, but gene therapy is quite a developing field at the moment and I think that's only going to be the first step in trans(bio)humanism. Just imagine a coat of chromatophores, able to cloak you, or skin impregnated with plant organelles for photosynthesis..

2.329 0.045