Press Release
Date: 10-21-09Name: Jerry Carey Phone: 856-566-6171
Email: careyge@umdnj.edu
UMDNJ Researchers Discover Novel Mechanism of Complex Evolutionary Change
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The research involves two similar species of nematodes, C. elegans and C. briggsae. Both species possess roughly 20,000 genes. Humans have about 30,000 genes.
The worms are self-fertile hermaphrodites, but each species descended from “normal” male/female ancestors. The UMDNJ researchers discovered that new genes evolved independently in the two species. Each came to manipulate the same critical protein that, in turn, causes self-fertility. Surprisingly, both new genes share a common structure (called an F-box), but they are not otherwise related, and they work in very different ways to create hermaphrodites.
“It’s as if you had two cars, and discovered that one ran better when you put a book in the engine compartment and that the other ran better if you put a similar book in the muffler,” said Ronald Ellis, Ph.D., the study’s corresponding author and an associate professor of Molecular Biology at the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine. “We were surprised that the same type of gene evolved to create hermaphrodites, when so many other solutions seemed possible. But we were even more surprised that despite their similarities, these two genes work in very different ways.”
Ellis added, “Our research shows how new genes arise to create new traits. We know that humans arose through a long process of evolution, and the better we understand the evolutionary process, the better we’ll be able to understand how the human genome works by extrapolating from studies such as this.”
To request an interview with Ronald Ellis, Ph.D., please contact Jerry Carey, UMDNJ News Service, at (856) 566-6171 or (973) 972-3000.
The UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine is dedicated to providing excellence in medical education, research and health care for New Jersey and the nation. Working in cooperation with Kennedy Memorial Hospitals-University Medical Center, its principal affiliate, the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine places an emphasis on primary health care and community health services that reflect its osteopathic philosophy, with centers of excellence that demonstrate its commitment to developing clinically skillful, compassionate and culturally competent physicians from diverse backgrounds, who are prepared to become leaders in their communities.
UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,900 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/ Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
