Snipped from News.Yahoo.com.

Here is some really interesting and thought provoking news about genetic evolution. This research is explaining how ancient viruses could have helped our early ancestors evolve into what we see now. Then, goes on to explain how viruses could be a culprit to our problem with cancer, and its uncontrolled growth rate.

The p53 gene is responsible for controlling the life, health and death of human cells. When this gene is turned off, the chance of cancer is heightened due to the cell’s life not being governed correctly. Thus, cells growing out of control. Retroviruses have been implicated in the evolution of this gene.

Here is a small portion of the article:

One such gene, called p53, has the job of coordinating the surveillance system that monitors the well-being of cells. It is so important in this job that when it fails, cancer is often the result—biologists even call it the “guardian of the genome.”

Scientists had long wondered how genes such as p53 built their powerful empire over other genes. A new study detailed this week in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences implicates the ancient retroviruses as the force behind p53’s rise to power.

Repetitive DNA

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, analyzed and compared genetic data from different species and found that certain retroviruses entered the genome about 40 million years ago and spread rapidly in primates about 25 million years ago.

Earlier research had shown that the DNA remnants of retroviruses like to jump around in the genetic code, and it’s this movement into new positions throughout the human genome that spread copies of repetitive DNA sequences, which in turn allowed p53 to regulate many other genes, the UCSC team said. (The association between the sequences and gene regulation had been suspected as far back as 1971.)