Barbara Mc Clintock The scientist who discovered jumping

Barbara Mc. Clintock The scientist who discovered jumping genes Kevin Jones

Early years �Barbara Mc. Clintock was born in June, 6 1902, and lived in Hartford, Connecticut, with a very active lifestyle. Her father was an army doctor and her mother was a piano teacher. She enjoyed playing volleyball, skating, and swimming.

College � Her passion for information led her to Enroll in Cornell University(the college of agriculture). Mc. Clintlock thrived academically, So much so that in her second year of graduate school, she was a paid assistant working in cytology.

career �When she graduated with her Ph. D. in 1927, she stayed at her college as an instructor, in order to map corn chromosomes in linkage groups.

� For the 20 th century, many people believed that genes were formed in a pattern, which formed a chromosome, linked together like a necklace. Barbara challenged that concept. she discovered that genes could in fact, be mobile. Her discovery was found in corn. A chromosome-breaking locus that could change its position within a chromosome, a. k. a transposons. Discovery

Why doesn't it kill us? �Transposons change our genetic structure, specifically in our chromosomes. And it leaves a copy of itself where it was before. Can’t that kill us? Transposase binds to either end of the transposons , then, brings the transposons together. The transposons interfere with each other. The transposition process is then halted.

� The idea that genes could move seemed very “confusing” to the scientific community. Being so used to the simple idea that genes could not move, they did not accept her idea of jumping genes. She needed a reason why genes could still remain stationary, and yet be able to “jump. ” Rejection

Explanation �In the 1950 s Mc. Clintlock discovered a key element in her discovery, a suppressormutator (spm). Spm’s, mainly are chemicals which turn the jumping genes on and off. The reactions are powered by methylation. Therefore this explains why our genes do not jump as frequently as corn.

Retirement �The impact of jumping genes explains certain types of cancer, mutations, and other radical changes in DNA. Barbra received a Nobel prize for her discovery and her “delayed recognition. ” she spent nearly the rest of her life improving upon her discovery. She lived all the way to 1992.

sources �http: //www. dnaftb. org/ � http: //www. pnas. org/ �http: //www. britannica. com/