# @seed on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BiABltulVgM
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34247937-seed-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/cff78cc9b0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-04-25T16:37:32.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Seed (@seed) — https://gondola.cc/seed

## Caption

This is the first directly photographed image of #DNA, snapped with an electron #microscope 🔬 by #Italian #physics professor Enzo Di Fabrizio. This shot came 59 years after James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin first published their discovery of the double #helix.⠀
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We've uncovered a lot about our #human #genome. For example, we know that we express about 20,000 protein-coding #genes that affect everything from our hair color 👩🏻👩🏼👩🏽👩🏾👩🏿 to our behavior to our risk for certain diseases.⠀
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But now, we know of another genome. Specifically, the genome of our #microbes—the #microbiome. Researchers estimate that the human microbiome contrbutes some 8 million unique protein coding genes. In other words, 99% of the genes expressed in our bodies is microbial. 🤯⠀
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That's not to say they're more important than our human genes—we'd take one of our human genes any day—but it does tell us that microbes play an extremely important role in working with our own genes to affect how we function. This is the study of #epigenetics, or how factors, like our microbes and their metabolites, can actually influence our genes, switching them on ✅ or off ❎.⠀
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High-contrast Direct DNA Image, TEM. Enzo Di Fabrizio. November 2012. #DNAday #humangenome #doublehelix #15for15

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## Tags

microbes, italian, human, doublehelix, dnaday, humangenome, helix, epigenetics, genome, 15for15, microscope, microbiome, physics, dna, genes

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