Epigenetics Garners Fifth Spot in Discover’s Top Science Stories of 2006
Jan 6, 2007 cancer, environmental alterations, methylation, news links
Discover Magazine has recognized several related discoveries in the field of epigenetics as the fifth top science story of 2006. The article details the research of Dr. Minoo Rassoulzadegan at the University of Nice:
- Minoo Rassoulzadegan’s mice are unruly. In blatant violation of the laws of genetics—described a century ago by famed monk-scientist Gregor Mendel—they inherit their parents’ coloring without inheriting the genes that cause it.
- Rassoulzadegan stumbled upon her rodent scofflaws after altering a gene in gray mice so that their feet and the tips of their tails turned white. The big surprise came in the next generation. Some offspring also had white spots, even though they didn’t inherit the mutated gene and so should have been all gray. When she looked for the cause, Rassoulzadegan found unusual amounts of RNA in the sperm of the mutant parents. She then injected RNA from the brains and sperm of those mice into ordinary gray mouse embryos. Many of the RNA-injected embryos likewise grew into white-tailed adults, regardless of the coloration written in their DNA.
The article also highlights the research of Dr. Vicki Chandler of the University of Arizona at Tucson and Dr. Michael Skinner of Washington State University. Link
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