![]() Upon return to Earth, the telomere elongation was replaced by accelerated shortening and loss, a potentially negative consequence for cellular health. In the meantime, the genetics team is enjoying the attention, Mason said.The findings, which were published in the April 12 print issue of Science and featured on its cover, show that Scott experienced thickening of the carotid artery, thickening of the retina, weight loss, shifts in gut microbes, reductions in cognitive abilities, DNA damage and changes in gene expression, and a lengthening of the ends of chromosomes called telomeres during the flight. And along with another research group, they have seen signs that the end caps on his chromosomes - called telomeres - may have gotten longer during spaceflight. The team is seeing small signs of a few genuine DNA mutations in Scott Kelly, Mason said, which are still under study. NASA and the other researchers collaborating on these studies expect to announce more comprehensive results on the twins studies this summer."įans of space mutants still can have a little hope until then. "We are at the beginning of our understanding of how space flight affects the molecular level of the human body. "Mark and Scott Kelly are still identical twins Scott’s DNA did not fundamentally change," the statement says. NASA's Kelly Humphries of Johnson Space Center sent an agency statement to BuzzFeed News late on Thursday: “That being said, this number is within a reasonable change range for humans under stress.” “This is the first experiment of its kind, so this sets the bar for future studies of astronaut health,” Mason said. Seeing perhaps 7% of genes still disrupted after being back on Earth is neither a high or low number, since the research team had no idea what to expect. ![]() “This gives us the first glimpse of the molecular catalog of human genes that are resilient or sensitive to the changes and stresses of year-long spaceflight,” Mason said. Nevertheless she called study unique and intriguing: “It's fantastic that they were able to recruit identical twins for the study.” “As for the term ‘space genes,’ it is certainly catchy but equally exaggerated,” Marzi said. And the NASA news release doesn’t explain how big the difference in gene expression is between the twins, which would help tell researchers if they mattered. She cautioned that with such a low number of participants in the study - two astronauts - a lot of the reported gene differences could be spurious. “First off, what one can certainly say is that changes in gene expression are not ‘permanent changes to DNA’ as some outlets appear to be reporting,” genetics expert Sarah Marzi of Queen Mary University of London told BuzzFeed News by email. Largely the genes are connected to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation, and metabolism, according to Mason, whose team is still waiting for the formal publication of their findings. “Although 93% of genes’ expression returned to normal postflight, a subset of several hundred ‘space genes’ were still disrupted after return to Earth,” the space agency announced.īut those space genes are still the same genes that Kelly possessed all along they just are expressed more or less often. For Scott Kelly, his space trip seemed to do just that. Lots of environmental factors are known to change the expression of our genes. “Whereas many of the people are talking about DNA changing are slightly misstating that.”Įveryone has about 20,000 genes in each cell, and the way the genes are turned on or off help the cell make the proteins and other stuff the body needs to function. “It was the gene expression that changed,” Mason said by email. ![]() But going to space did affect the way his genes were turned on and off - known as gene expression. Scott’s DNA code did not change, he said. The lead scientist of the study, Christopher Mason of Weill Cornell Medicine, told BuzzFeed News that news coverage suggesting that Scott Kelly is a space mutant and no longer an identical twin of Mark Kelly is a bit confused.
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