Survival of the Sickest: Chapter 6 summary

     Chapter 6 began by explaining the origin of vaccinations and then used this information to provide the cliffhanger that "genes could change." Then, chromosomes and recessive/dominant genes are explains. It begins talking about non-coding DNA, mitochondria, and notes that DNA hasn't adapted to viruses and bacteria, it has been shaped by it. Next, the book talks about mutations and explains that antigenic drift is when a mutation occurs in the DNA of a virus while antigenic shift is when a virus obtains new genes from a similar strain. The next major topic covered is the "jumping gene," discovered by Barbara McClintock. She discovered this by observing the genetic of corn, in which the plants seemed to be undergoes a kind of intentional mutation. The jumping genes sometimes copy and paste, cut and paste, stay in place, or are removed or suppressed. The two types of jumping genes are DNA transposons and retrotransposons.  Finally the book came back to the topic of the "junk" non-coding DNA to say that transposons are an important part of our non-coding DNA...so perhaps this non-coding DNA is in fact not junk........................