In honor of National DNA Day, we take a look at the myriad ways that researchers in the College of Natural Sciences use deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and genomic information to fight disease, improve agriculture and illuminate the wonders of the natural world.
National DNA Day commemorates two major milestones in science: the day in 1953 when three papers describing the structure of DNA were first published and the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003. The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA sparked a revolution in molecular biology. Fifty years later, the completion of the DNA sequence in humans provided a road map to help us navigate countless complexities in the code of life. Since then, researchers have unleashed an unprecedented amount of biological data, allowing for amazing advances in many areas.
Here are 22 examples of how scientists are using DNA and genomic information at UT Austin to address societal challenges and answer big questions about how the world works.
Agriculture and Ecology
- A roadmap of the cotton genome will allow researchers to make improvements in cotton and help a struggling cotton industry.
- Climate change is creating a pressing need to maximize the potential of crops. Researchers are collecting and sequencing the genes of hundreds of switchgrass samples to study how genes and a host of environmental factors affect the plant and its potential as a biofuel. They're also using sorghum's genomic data to predict which plants will thrive under stressful situations, such as drought.
- Genomic information about the microbes within insects may provide insights for how to help pollinators, as well as how to fight pests. For example, scientists sequencing the genomes of bacteria living in honeybee stomachs may reveal the secrets of colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has many worried. Likewise, understanding the genetics behind the gut bacteria of the pea aphid, a major agricultural pest worldwide, and the symbiosis between the two could lead to new pest-control measures.
- Using genomic tools, scientists found that some coral populations already have genetic variants necessary to tolerate warming ocean waters, and humans can help spread these genes.
Health
- Novel single-molecule imaging techniques allow scientists to image DNA repair proteins, which could lead to targeted genetic medicine that prevents cancer cells from surviving through self-repair.
- A scientific team that includes undergraduate students are creating inexpensive "do-it-yourself" diagnostic tests that use DNA to detect whether mosquitoes are infected with Zika virus and other blood-borne pathogens such as malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya virus.
- Weight loss programs tailored to a person's genome may be coming in the next few years.
- Researchers have built an autonomous nanoscale walking machine made of DNA that might one day roam the human body searching for cancerous cells.
- Discovery of the assembly instructions for nearly 1,000 protein complexes that are shared across the tree of life offers a powerful new tool for studying the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer. Meanwhile, a scientific team swapped genes to create partly humanized yeast, an innovation that could be used to better understand genetic disorders and to screen drugs for treating these diseases.
- Scientists have developed a new protein booster that may lead to better DNA vaccines and gene therapy.
- By comparing patterns of genetic code from the brain tissue of alcoholics and nonalcoholics, researchers have identified a network of genes that appear to influence alcoholism.
Revealing Nature's Mysteries
- Scientists recently unveiled the most comprehensive tree of life ever, based on genomes, greatly expanding our view of the diversity of life on the planet. Researchers also used genomic sequencing to find that a newly discovered class of subsurface microbes consumes carbon monoxide, a weak greenhouse gas, to produce energy.
- Genetic testing revealed a surprising way of producing offspring in brownbanded bamboo sharks, giving hope to the future of wild sharks threatened by overfishing and habitat loss.
- Researchers constructed one of the only genome sequences of an amphibian to improve what we know about one of the major transitions in life on the planet: some creatures' move from water to land.
As genomic data becomes easier and cheaper to obtain, processing the ever-increasing onslaught of data points becomes more of a challenge, requiring new methods and training to make sense of it all.
Computer scientists are already developing newer and better methods for finding the most meaningful information in highly complex data. The Texas Advanced Computing Center designs and operates powerful supercomputers that can make use of these newer methods.
Meanwhile, the Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics has developed courses for training faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the best methods for analyzing large sets of genomic data. Undergraduates can also explore methods for making sense of large-scale datasets in the Freshman Research Initiative's new "Big Data in Biology" course.
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