HTTP:: New Causes for Down Syndrome Identified
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Aneuploidy is a very common genetic accident in human fetuses, which occurs when an excessively large number of chromosomes is formed. The results of this genetic malfunction include common genetic disorders (such as the Down Syndrome), as well as pregnancy loss in the most extreme cases. A new study by the US Department Of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has recently shed some light on what precisely causes the many chromosomes to form.Working together with colleagues from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, scientists at LBNL's Life Sciences Division observed pregnant mice females, and noticed something peculiar. If the mother's egg had just one mutation in a single copy of the Bub1 gene, then that mouse gave birth to fewer live offspring than others in a control group, which exhibited no such mutation. The find is remarkable, because basic genetics shows that, in order for an organism to be compromised, both copies of a gene in a chromos!
ome need to be mutated in exactly the same manner.âœBut we found that a mutation in a single copy of the Bub1 gene can have an impact â" and this is not the case with most genes. With Bub1, if you have one bad gene and one healthy gene, there's a problem,â LBNL Life Sciences Di...
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Causes-for-Down-Syndrome-Identified-117112.shtml
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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