Dynamical genetics concerns the study and the interpretation of those phenomena in which physiological

enzymatic Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. ...

protein complex A protein complex or multiprotein complex is a group of two or more associated polypeptide chains. Protein complexes are distinct from multienzyme complexes, in which multiple catalytic domains are found in a single polypeptide chain. Protein c ...

es alter the DNA, in a more or less sophisticated way. The study of such mechanisms is important firstly since they promote useful functions, as for example the immune system recombination (on individual scale) and the crossing-over (on evolutionary scale); secondly since they may sometimes become harmful because of some malfunctioning, causing for example

neurodegenerative disorders A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

. Typical examples of dynamical genetics subjects are: * dynamic mutations, term introduced by Robert I. Richards and Grant R. Sutherland to indicate

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...

s caused by other mutations; this phenomenon often involves the variable number tandem repeats,{{cite journal , last1=Fonzo , first1=VD , last2=Bersani , first2=E , last3=Aluffi-Pentini , first3=F , last4=Parisi , first4=V , title=DNA quadruplexes and dynamical genetics. , journal=Medical Hypotheses , date=July 2001 , volume=57 , issue=1 , pages=103–11 , doi=10.1054/mehy.2001.1291 , pmid=11421636 closely related to many

neurodegenerative disease A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

s, as the

trinucleotide repeat disorders Trinucleotide repeat disorders, also known as microsatellite expansion diseases, are a set of over 50 genetic disorders caused by trinucleotide repeat expansion, a kind of mutation in which repeats of three nucleotides ( trinucleotide repeats) inc ...

(interpreted by

Anita Harding Anita Elizabeth Harding (17 September 1952 – 11 September 1995) was an Irish-British neurologist, and Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Institute of Neurology of the University of London. She is known for the discovery with Ian Holt a ...

). *dynamic genome, term introduced by

Nina Fedoroff Nina Vsevolod Fedoroff (born April 9, 1942) is an American molecular biologist known for her research in life sciences and biotechnology, especially transposable elements or jumping genes. and plant stress response.Elder, Andy (Fall 2002Faces of ...

and David Botstein to indicate the transposition discovered by

Barbara McClintock Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American scientist and cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927. There s ...

. * immune V(D)J recombination (discovered by Susumu Tonegawa) and isotype class switching, terms introduced to indicate two kinds of immune system recombinations, which are the main cause of the enormous variety of antibodies. * horizontal DNA transfer (discovered by

Frederick Griffith Frederick Griffith (1877–1941) was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia. In January 1928 he reported what is now known as Griffith's Experiment, the first widely accepted demonstrati ...

) that indicates the DNA transfer between two organisms. * crossing-over (discovered by

Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role tha ...

) mediated by formation and unwinding (by means of peculiar enzymatic complexes such as

helicase Helicases are a class of enzymes thought to be vital to all organisms. Their main function is to unpack an organism's genetic material. Helicases are motor proteins that move directionally along a nucleic acid phosphodiester backbone, separatin ...

) of uncommon four-helix DNA structures known as

G-quadruplex In molecular biology, G-quadruplex Nucleic acid secondary structure, secondary structures (G4) are formed in nucleic acids by sequences that are rich in guanine. They are helical in shape and contain guanine tetrads that can form from one, two o ...

es (discovered by Martin Gellert, Marie N. Lipsett, and David R. Davies).

References

Genetics