Article: Regulatory DNAs may be missed
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 12:55:46 -0500 (EST)
Regulatory DNAs may be missed
Nonconserved, noncoding regulatory sequences could be new mutation targets
[Published 24th March 2006 05:59 PM GMT]
Vast numbers of noncoding regulatory sequences may lurk in nonconserved DNA
that are not detected by techniques typically used to identify these
sequences, suggests research appearing online this week in Science. These
findings have already triggered plans for subsequent investigations to
uncover functional DNA that previous studies may have missed.
"Functional noncoding sequences can exist below the radar of current
predictions," coauthor Andrew McCallion told The Scientist. These sequences
could prove novel targets for mutation and therapeutic screens, coauthor
Shannon Fisher added.
Current methods that identify functional noncoding DNA focus on comparing
genomes to find conserved sequences, on the assumption that conservation
over great evolutionary distances indicates selective pressure to preserve
critical mechanisms. The researchers discovered that even though noncoding
regions apparently are not conserved between the human developmental gene
RET and its zebrafish counterpart ret, nearly all of the human noncoding
regulatory sequences discovered at RET could also function when introduced
into zebrafish.
Full Text at TheScientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23246/
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
.
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