1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,600 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 1: Chuck and this is Short Stuff, The Mysteries of Genetic 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:12,040 Speaker 1: Mutations Edition. 4 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 2: That's right, because we're gonna talk about the X Men. 5 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: Yeah, a mutation. I mean, I don't know if it 6 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:25,799 Speaker 1: would help you join x men, But there are mutations 7 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: that alter people, sometimes in positive ways. We usually associated 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: with negative stuff, like a congenital disease or something. A 9 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:35,520 Speaker 1: lot of them are neutral, I think actually the vast 10 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: majority are neutral. They don't really have any noticeable effect. 11 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:45,519 Speaker 1: Some are beneficial. Lactose intolerance, immunity to malaria, when someone's 12 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: vestigial tale turns into a glorious full tale. Those are 13 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: all beneficial genetic mutations. But all of them share something 14 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: in common, and that is that the replication of the 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,279 Speaker 1: person's genome had some sort of error while it was 16 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 1: being copied. 17 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 2: Is lactose intolerance a beneficial No lactose tolerance, I think 18 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 2: I thought you said intolerance. 19 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry, Yeah, So lactose intolerance is apparently the 20 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:19,759 Speaker 1: base line the default lactose tolerance is from a genetic mutation. 21 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 2: All right, well, let's get into this. Let's talk about 22 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 2: DNA or deoxy riboonucleic acid as we all like to 23 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 2: call it, such a great word around the campfire. That's 24 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 2: a molecule that's going to carry genetic material almost said 25 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 2: mutation when you're developing as a as a future human. 26 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 2: And structurally, I think we've all seen the If you've 27 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 2: seen Jurassic Park, you've seen what these double this double 28 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 2: helix looks like it's a long molecule comprised of nucleotides 29 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 2: and there been you know, there's two strands to that 30 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 2: coil that formed the double helix that kind of wind 31 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 2: around each other. And that's that's what the DNA, the 32 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 2: full DNA what would you call it, just molecule looks. 33 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 1: Like the genome. Yeah, the molecule DNA is a molecule. Yeah, 34 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: and you said it man, it is long. Apparently if 35 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: you stretched it out, it would be about two meters 36 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: or six feet tall, if you could figure out how 37 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: to stretch it out. It's amazing. And it's made of 38 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: three point one billion base pairs of nucleotides, thymine, cytosine, guanine, 39 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: and adenine, and adenine goes with thymine, and cytosine goes 40 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: with guanine and you put all that together. Just with 41 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: those combinations, you have a a galaxy of different code 42 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: that's embedded into the DNA that serves as how like, 43 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,919 Speaker 1: it tells the rest of your body, each cell what 44 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: it's supposed to do and how to do it. And 45 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: usually that has to do with expressing proteins. 46 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, like you mentioned, as the cells 47 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 2: divide and the DNA is making copies of itself, there 48 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 2: might be errors here and there, and that's where those 49 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 2: mutations come from. And then if they're in the egg 50 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 2: and sperm cells, that those are going to be passed 51 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 2: on to the next generation. So that's a genetic mutation 52 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 2: that's going to carry on and cause disease or genetic disorders. 53 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 2: You can also have what's called a somatic mutation, and 54 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 2: that only affects you. It's not inherited by your future. 55 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: Kids, right exactly. So really the big problem is genes, 56 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: like a gene not being replicated correctly, and a gene 57 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,839 Speaker 1: is just a stretch of nucleotide base pairs along your 58 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: genome that together shows how to encode a protein. It's 59 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: the instructions to how to do a specific thing. And 60 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: again it's just a segment along your DNA, and when 61 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: that stuff gets copied, if there's any kind of error, 62 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: like say you match up an AD nine to a cytosine, 63 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: it's going to prevent that cellular process that whatever the 64 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: gene is telling the cell to do to not be 65 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: able to be performed correctly, hence some mutation. 66 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, and our cells are constantly copying themselves, either replacing 67 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,160 Speaker 2: old cells or damage cells. And when that happens, when 68 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,600 Speaker 2: they're doing that copy, that double stranded DNA is going 69 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 2: to split into the two parts and each strand is 70 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,280 Speaker 2: copied on its own and then they come back together. 71 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 2: And when that happens, there can be errors. The good 72 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 2: news is it's approximately one in every one hundred million 73 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 2: replications this happens. So that's a you know, that's a 74 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 2: pretty good statistic to have in your hip pocket. The 75 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 2: other good news is DNA knows what it's doing, so 76 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 2: it generally knows when an error happens, and they try 77 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 2: to and often can repair and correct that before any 78 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 2: problems arise. 79 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's a pretty good place to take 80 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: a break, Chuck. So let's take a break, Chuck. 81 00:04:59,440 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 2: Let's do it. 82 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:20,279 Speaker 3: Shot shot. 83 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,919 Speaker 1: Okay. So there's basically two ways that you can that 84 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,240 Speaker 1: a genetic mutation can develop, the cell replication, which we've 85 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: talked a lot about, and then environmental influences. And there's 86 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: actually different ways that can happen. Even during cell replication. 87 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:47,040 Speaker 1: There's tautumeric shifts, which is where the nucleotide itself undergoes 88 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: a quick chemical reaction to where suddenly adnine turns into 89 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: I don't know, silver just for a second and then 90 00:05:56,680 --> 00:05:59,919 Speaker 1: it eventually turns back. But if that if that adnine 91 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: nucleotide is being copied at that moment, you're going to 92 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:07,040 Speaker 1: have a silver nucleotide in your DNA. 93 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 2: Yeah. 94 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: Silver just don't work when it comes to making proteins. 95 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's sort of due to bad timing. Another 96 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 2: thing that can happen as far as those errors go, 97 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 2: it's called mispairing. And was this a house Off Works article? 98 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 1: Yes, it was. 99 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:22,719 Speaker 2: Yeah, they did a pretty good job of putting this 100 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 2: in terms we could understand. If you imagine those two 101 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 2: DNA strands that work together are zipped together like a zipper. 102 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 2: Sometimes that zipper doesn't. 103 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: Align and get stuck in it. 104 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 2: Oh my god, And that can happen when the DNA 105 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 2: is getting zipped back up, and that can cause parts 106 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:43,559 Speaker 2: of it to be skipped over or maybe something added 107 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 2: that shouldn't be right. 108 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: And then the third way that a mutation can happen 109 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,480 Speaker 1: during replication is what's called jumping genes cousins of jumping jacks, 110 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:58,000 Speaker 1: and that is where so these genes are normally I 111 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: don't understand this fully, but gene which again are just 112 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,400 Speaker 1: stretches of code on your DNA, can actually move. They 113 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,279 Speaker 1: can change positions, they can change places. Sometimes they replicate themselves, 114 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: and the replicant goes and embeds itself in another segment 115 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: of your DNA, And if it does so in a 116 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: gene another gene, then it's going to mess up that 117 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,360 Speaker 1: gene's ability to perform its function. Did not know that 118 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: that was a thing. 119 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 2: Did not either, had never heard of jumping genes. I've 120 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 2: heard of jumping beans and jumping jacks, but never jumping genes. 121 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: Very nice. So that's the. 122 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 2: Ways that can happen. As far as like an error 123 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 2: occurring in your body on a cellular level, you mentioned 124 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 2: external factors. One of the big ones, and I didn't 125 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 2: know to this extent even is radiation and you might 126 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 2: be thinking like, yeah, so you just don't get X 127 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 2: rayed when you're pregnant, like that solves everything, right, That's 128 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 2: not necessarily a case, because UV radiation can be a 129 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:05,120 Speaker 2: very big cause of mutations, specifically when it's called like 130 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 2: a sunburn on your DNA. If you have too much 131 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 2: UV radiation, you can they can form something called how 132 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 2: would you say. 133 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 1: That, I'm going to say perimidin dimers. 134 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 2: Perimeding dimers, And I looked, I was. 135 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,040 Speaker 1: Like, is that a misprint? Is it supposed to be dimmers? 136 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: And Nope. 137 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 2: Now it's dimers and especially diming dimers that can distort 138 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,920 Speaker 2: that DNA structure. And that's sort of like a sunburn 139 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 2: on the DNA, and that happens when a couple of 140 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 2: DNA building blocks are stuck together, and that's oftentimes caused 141 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 2: from you know, sun exposure. 142 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also chemical factors too, which are basically biological 143 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: or environmental factors. Essentially, what it is is there's different 144 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: kinds of chemicals that can make their way into the 145 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: DNA in the nucleus of a cell and just mess 146 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:02,200 Speaker 1: with it. Sometimes they nucleotides and they get pulled in 147 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: like like just some guy walking down the street getting 148 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: pulled into the Jimmy Fallon Late Night Show because they 149 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: couldn't get enough people to fill seats. That can happen 150 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:18,600 Speaker 1: during DNA reproduction replication, and when that nucleotide that didn't 151 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 1: mean to be there gets entered into that the new 152 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,959 Speaker 1: code of DNA again, problems arise. That's a mutation. 153 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:28,560 Speaker 2: The problems arise when they have to sit there and 154 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:33,120 Speaker 2: watch Jimmy Fallon. Oh man, boy, I'm gonna hear it. 155 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:38,959 Speaker 2: They're also biological factors like a virus can cause that 156 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 2: can get in the DNA and that can lead to mutations. 157 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 2: And then there's some other environmental stuff as well, right, yeah. 158 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,559 Speaker 1: De animating agents they actually remove parts of our DNA. 159 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: Substances like stuff found in cigarette smoke can stick to 160 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: the DNA like so much tar and change the shape 161 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: of the DNA. Essentially, you don't want anything going anywhere 162 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,800 Speaker 1: near your DNA. And if there's something that happens, and 163 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: it happens on an important gene, that mutation is going 164 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:10,160 Speaker 1: to produce some sort of problems down the line. But 165 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:16,359 Speaker 1: our body is actually really really good at either preventing 166 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: these errors or correcting them. When it finds them, which 167 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: is just mind boggling to me. 168 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super cool that our body can do this. 169 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,319 Speaker 2: Sometimes it's like it's called a direct fix and these 170 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 2: are these are just small little errors. Like they likened 171 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 2: it to a road crack, and they also likened it 172 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 2: to just a quick patch on that road. The cell 173 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 2: just directly fixes it super quick. 174 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,800 Speaker 1: Like yeah, and we should say the cell the Yeah, 175 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: the cell that's transcribing the DNA is aware of it 176 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:52,320 Speaker 1: because there are different different molecules that proofread the newly 177 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 1: created DNA to make sure it matches the original. 178 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:56,280 Speaker 2: Amazing. 179 00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. So if they find a mismatch, if 180 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:03,240 Speaker 1: they find just some stretch it could be big, small, whatever, 181 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: they'll actually cut it out excision. They'll digest it and 182 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,200 Speaker 1: then they'll reproduce the correct version of it and then 183 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,280 Speaker 1: connect it to that part that they cut out of 184 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:16,440 Speaker 1: the DNA and then zip it together. 185 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 2: And if it's if a whole section of DNA gets damaged, 186 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,680 Speaker 2: they can go to another DNA strand and say, hey, 187 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 2: I'm glad you're here because we're gonna use you now 188 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,080 Speaker 2: to come fix this other strand. 189 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, thank god you're here. They were about to pull 190 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: us into Jimmy Fallon and we needed something to do. 191 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 2: That's a off said thing in my house. Thank God 192 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 2: I was here because I know we mentioned one of 193 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 2: the roses the movie How It Holds Up. That's one 194 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:45,840 Speaker 2: of the great lines from one of the roses when 195 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 2: they are separated, but Michael Douglas is still in the 196 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 2: house and the Christmas tree catches fire and he runs 197 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:54,840 Speaker 2: downstairs and puts it out and screams, thank god I 198 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,720 Speaker 2: was here. And I say that a lot, and just 199 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,320 Speaker 2: whenever anything dumb happens that I saw for the Face family, 200 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:01,640 Speaker 2: I go, thank god I was here. 201 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,040 Speaker 1: That's great. That's a great thing. Man Chuck. Everybody loves 202 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: Chuck for reasons like that. 203 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:09,640 Speaker 2: Not everybody, just like Raymond. 204 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:11,480 Speaker 1: All those people can go soak their heads. 205 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 2: Oh okay, thank you. 206 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: Well, since I think we're out of stuff to talk about, 207 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,360 Speaker 1: short stuff is out. 208 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,000 Speaker 2: Stuff you should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 209 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 2: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 210 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:32,240 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.