The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Gene angle to first couple

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Gene angle to first couple

By Our Staff Reporter

J. Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, University College of London, delivering a lecture on `Did Adam meet Eve, the view from the genes' at IICT on Tuesday. Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD, FEB. 22. Did Adam meet Eve? Probably not. Adam lived far more recently than Eve. This is because men are much more variable in their sexual success than women. "So these two famous individuals could not have lived at the same time," said J. Steve Jones, professor of Genetics, University College, London.

He was delivering a popular science lecture on "Did Adam meet Eve, the view from the genes" on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the P.M. Bhargava Foundation here on Tuesday. Lalji Singh, director, CCMB, also spoke.

Prof. Jones took a trip down human history of genetic ancestry to explain the transportation of genetic material across years and continents. Speaking with the aid of slides, he said genetics was all about difference. Men and women were different because they had different chromosomes. But there were many creatures which determined their sex without chromosomes or even genes, Prof. Jones said.

Shared ancestors

He said Y chromosome was not fundamental to nature of sex. Sexual reproduction mixed genes with those of others and it meant that everyone had shared ancestors. He referred to sea elephants to explain how only one in 20 ever passed on his genes. One Mulai Ismail of Morocco, who lived in the 16th century, had sired 888 children. Obviously, there could not have been one Mrs. Mulai. And all his children carried the Y chromosome which originated just one generation ago.

His sons just need to trace back one generation before to get their "Adam", their father. However, to get to their "Eve", the daughters had to go much further back. "In order to find the shared female ancestor one has to go back into history," Prof. Jones said.

The programme concluded with a Kathak recital by Raghav Raj Bhatt and Mangala Bhatt.

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