Albino Wallaby at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Albino Wallaby

December 16, 2010

The kangaroo and wallaby exhibit at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida is home to a rare albino wallaby.  Albino means lacking normal pigmentation so the coat appears white while the skin appears pinkish even though it is white.  What gives the pinkish tone is the blood below the skin.  This is the same reason why the eyes appear red.  Albinism is a rare, autosomal recessive trait.  In the wild, albino animals seldom survive because the lack the necessary colouration to avoid predation.  As a result of their reduced fecundity, albinos seldom live long enough to produce offspring however the gene that causes albinism remains in the general population as a recessive only to be expressed on the very rare occasion.  Thanks to Busch Gardens this little guy should have a relatively normal lifespan!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

RIP Dr. Kornberg

Enchantment
October 25, 2007

Dr. Arthur Kornberg died yesterday of respiratory failure at the age of 89. He was an active professor emeritus at Standford's School of Medicine. This genetic pioneer won the Nobel prize in 1959 for the synthesis of DNA in the test tube. He compared the nitrogenous base compositions of the DNA template with those recovered from the DNA product thus demonstrating that the templates were replicated faithfully. He also used the nearest-neighbour frequency test to assay the fidelity of the copying confirming that DNA polymerase I seed to be the likely candidate for DNA synthesis during replication within the cell. Out of necessity Kornberg's experiments were performed in vitro.

I have had the distinct privilege and honour of listing and meeting some of the greats in the field of genetics. Dr. Kornberg was one of those that I had the opportunity to listen to, riveted in my seat hanging to his every word. I can still remember quite vividly the first time I separated a strand of DNA. It was a sheer thrill! Then it got better as I visualized the DNA as bands on a gel and realizing each band represented a nucleotide creating a sequence. I still get a thrill at seeing this. The pioneers of genetics left us this legacy. We are indeed very fortunate!

Rest in Peace, Dr. Kornberg and thank-you.