Should be noted that these studies were done on mice and in the laboratory, so no concrete evidence is present at the moment. Still, I think it's an interesting experiment.
Should be noted that these studies were done on mice and in the laboratory, so no concrete evidence is present at the moment. Still, I think it's an interesting experiment.
The article is talking about how we also eat DNA at the time as eating our food. Fine but I thought our human digestion process was essentially stomach enzymes to break down food into proteins,...
The article is talking about how we also eat DNA at the time as eating our food. Fine but I thought our human digestion process was essentially stomach enzymes to break down food into proteins, carbs, fats, alcohols and other things. We derive vitamins, minerals and energy measured in calories from these things by absorbing the broken down building blocks of food.
Can anyone with a biology background explain in more nuance?
Wouldn’t any DNA of those building blocks either be destroyed by our stomach acid or passed out with other non digestible components as waste?
Or partially absorbed some way, essentially the hypothesis of the article is absorbing damaged DNA is somehow dangerous to us but via what mechanism is it absorbed and where does it go in the first place?
You have the basics correct. Something easily missed is that the authors aren't talking about huge strands of DNA, they're talking about the very small building blocks that compose these strands,...
You have the basics correct. Something easily missed is that the authors aren't talking about huge strands of DNA, they're talking about the very small building blocks that compose these strands, and are indeed what the digestion process breaks those huge strands down into. The molecules in question are quite a bit smaller than fatty acids and amino acids (proteins), in fact.
You may remember from school that DNA is a bunch of "ACTG" molecules all stuck together? The researchers are talking about the T and the G.
Not an expert, but some cursory googling brought up the term “pathway salvaging” for general bodily functions and, more specifically, Nucleotide salvage , as the function pertaining to this...
Not an expert, but some cursory googling brought up the term “pathway salvaging” for general bodily functions and, more specifically, Nucleotide salvage , as the function pertaining to this article. Again, I am not an expert so I could be wrong. I urge you to do your own research.
Please don't copy-paste entire articles into a comment like this. That's the kind of thing that can get the site in trouble for copyright infringement.
Should be noted that these studies were done on mice and in the laboratory, so no concrete evidence is present at the moment. Still, I think it's an interesting experiment.
The article is talking about how we also eat DNA at the time as eating our food. Fine but I thought our human digestion process was essentially stomach enzymes to break down food into proteins, carbs, fats, alcohols and other things. We derive vitamins, minerals and energy measured in calories from these things by absorbing the broken down building blocks of food.
Can anyone with a biology background explain in more nuance?
Wouldn’t any DNA of those building blocks either be destroyed by our stomach acid or passed out with other non digestible components as waste?
Or partially absorbed some way, essentially the hypothesis of the article is absorbing damaged DNA is somehow dangerous to us but via what mechanism is it absorbed and where does it go in the first place?
You have the basics correct. Something easily missed is that the authors aren't talking about huge strands of DNA, they're talking about the very small building blocks that compose these strands, and are indeed what the digestion process breaks those huge strands down into. The molecules in question are quite a bit smaller than fatty acids and amino acids (proteins), in fact.
You may remember from school that DNA is a bunch of "ACTG" molecules all stuck together? The researchers are talking about the T and the G.
Thank you, I was also confused on that point! The article could certainly have explained that better
For what it's worth, I only remember the specific letters because of the movie Gattacca.
Not an expert, but some cursory googling brought up the term “pathway salvaging” for general bodily functions and, more specifically, Nucleotide salvage , as the function pertaining to this article. Again, I am not an expert so I could be wrong. I urge you to do your own research.
From Deimos:
Ah sorry. I'll remove the text.