Astronaut's DNA no longer matches that of his identical twin, NASA finds

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/health/scott-kelly-dna-nasa-twins-study/index.html

by LyalinDotCom • 8 years ago

7 2 8 years ago

gus_massa• 8 years ago

The article avoids all the interesting technical details. In case you re wondering if this is possible and how much of this is an exaggeration, the title of the research article is "The Landscape of DNA and RNA Methylation Before, During, and After Human Space Travel (Twins Study - Mason) - 09.27.17" https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experime...

Methylation is an usual process that can be used for enabling and disabling genes expression. It's reversible, somewhat permanent and somewhat inheritable. If you like a bad analogy, it's like making a change in the bios setup of your computer or updating the configuration of the wifi router. It's not a firmware update or a hardware modification. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_methylation

psychobabble• 8 years ago

Maybe, but what is really causing the DNA methylation? The article pins it mostly on epigenetics or environment, the 'stress of space travel', including dietary constraints and oxygen levels all of which are valid.

- https://theconversation.com/epigenetics-can-stress-really-ch...

- http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/stress-induced-dna-mo...

- https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/sponsored/nestle/how... ooh, sponsored article, didn't catch that the first time.

However, the CNN article only briefly mentions 'radiation' as a factor and likely is lumping that into the 'stressful environment' case repeated several times.

Realistically, cosmic rays or radiation are far more likely to the be prevailing indicator for DNA disruption but are not plainly disclosed here. Despite much research having been done on this specific topic.

Wikipedia states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_threat_from_cosmic_rays "The potential acute and chronic health effects of space radiation, as with other ionizing radiation exposures, involve both direct damage to DNA, indirect effects due to generation of reactive oxygen species, and changes to the biochemistry of cells and tissues, which can alter gene transcription and the tissue microenvironment along with producing DNA mutations."

From this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.6641 "In the present paper, we suggest the BNR as a cause of genetic “fails” in living cells, that is one of the possible origins of the so called spontaneous mutations. Cells exposed to the shower of electrons and ions, caused by the collision of a neutron and a proton of water, could be annihilated or experience a permanent damage, in particular, a damage in the DNA."

Cosmic radiation detrimental effects to DNA confirmed by NASA in this study: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/200800...

And more poignantly, from https://www.vencoreweather.com/blog/2017/6/26/1200-pm-cosmic... ( do not read full link if you are easily panicked ): "... there are other consequences of increasing cosmic rays according to “Spaceweather.com” including the penetration of commercial airlines, dosing passengers and flight crews enough that pilots are classified as occupational radiation workers. [Dose rates are expressed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x]"

Sorry for the data dump, I just happened to be researching cosmic ray effects the past few evenings and have collected many interesting facts on the topic. The most I have concluded at this point is that humans, as currently derived, are not made for space travel.

Astronaut's DNA no longer matches that of his identical twin, NASA finds

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