Weekly KromoNews: Volume 4, Issue 14
Editor's Note
The changing face of drug discovery:
A few months earlier, when we published the
interview with Prof. Russ Altman,
it was still a mystery whether drug discovery is going to take a more personal approach, and if so, when?
We are now in the process of noticing the change, and are looking forward to bringing another set of interviews
to you over the next few weeks.
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This Week in Genetics
Ancient antibody molecule offers clues to how humans evolved allergies
Jun 13, 2008
Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered how evolution may have lumbered humans with allergy problems. The team from the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King’s College London are working on a molecule vital to a chicken’s immune system which represents the evolutionary ancestor of the human antibodies that cause allergic reactions. Crucially, they have discovered that the chicken molecule behaves quite differently from its human counterpart, which throws light on the origin and cause of allergic reactions in humans and gives hope for new strategies for treatment. The work is published in the June 13 issue in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Researcher, Dr Alex Taylor said: "This molecule is like a living fossil – finding out that it has an ancient past is like turning up a coelacanth in your garden pond. By studying this molecule, we can track the evolution of allergic reactions back to at least 160 million years ago and by looking at the differences between the ancient and the modern antibodies we can begin to understand how to design better drugs to stop allergic reactions in their tracks."
[Journal of Biological Chemistry]
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Scientists identify a key regulator of DNA mutations
Jun 9, 2008
Rockefeller University scientists F. Nina Papavasiliou and Michel C. Nussenzweig have independently identified a tiny molecule that directly binds to and curbs the production of this potent gene mutator, an enzyme called AID. By tightly controlling levels of AID, this molecule, known as microRNA-155, stands between two opposing bastions of health: an immune system that can ward off an ever-growing legion of infectious microbes and one that can send the body down the road to some of the most aggressive and lethal forms of cancer — leukemia and B cell lymphomas.
The findings of both papers define a new role for miR-155. In the past, it has been implicated in the onset and development of cancer. Now, this research suggests that when it specifically binds to AID, it can potentially thwart it.
[Immunity]
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Centromeres cross over, a lot
Jun 9, 2008
Recombination at centromeres is higher than anywhere else on the chromosome, even though methyltransferases do their best to prevent it.
Centromeric recombination has been hard to study because the DNA at centromeres is so repetitive—it’s hard to see when a segment has switched chromatids. Jaco et al. have now addressed this challenge by using CO-FISH (chromosome orientation fluorescence in situ hybridization). After replication, the two new strands are digested away, leaving the two old strands. Because the strands are complementary in sequence, they can be tagged with strand-specific fluorescent probes. Using just one probe, only one chromatid would show a signal if no recombination had occurred.
Instead, the authors found that both chromatids fluoresced. And not just at one point—on average, the authors counted, centromeres had undergone 15 recombination events. This is about six times the rate of recombination as that seen for an equal length of telomeric DNA, and 175 times the rate for genomic DNA as a whole.
[Journal of Cell Biology]
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Upcoming Genetics Event
European Biomarkers Summit |
| When: | Thu Oct 16, 2008 to Fri Oct 17, 2008 |
| Title: | European Biomarkers Summit |
| Description: | The 3rd annual European Biomarkers Summit will take place in the historic city of Lisbon, Portugal.
The conference will be co-located with Advances in Metabolic Profiling and Proteomics Europe and registered delegates will have access to all three meetings ensuring a very cost-effective trip. Please visit the website for up-to-date information, including agenda topics.
|
| Where: | Lisbon Congress Centre, Lisbon, Portugal |
| Contact: | Enquiries |
| Email: | enquiries@Selectbiosciences.com |
| Website: | http://www.selectbiosciences.com/conferences/EBS2008/index.aspx |
Genetics Term of the Week: Shotgun sequencing
Shotgun sequencing: Shotgun sequencing, also known as shotgun cloning, is a method used for sequencing long DNA strands. The method works by shredding the genome into smaller fragments of DNA which can be sequenced individually. The sequences of these fragments are then ordered, based on overlaps in the genetic code, and finally reassembled into the complete sequence.
Read more
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