Most traits that are inherited, including those that predispose individuals to certain diseases, are conferred not by single genes but by combinations of them. That’s both good news and bad news, says Charles Boone, an HHMI international research scholar at the University of Toronto.
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Killing the messenger may well be essential to a cell’s vitality. HHMI investigator Roy Parker says that destroying mRNAs is one of the quickest, surest ways for a cell to revise its fundamental purpose and moment-by-moment agenda. read in full issue (pdf)
Living cells have “molecular paper shredders” that purge outdated genetic instructions. The subcellular structures were discovered by Ujwal Sheth, a University of Arizona Ph.D. candidate in molecular and cellular biology, and her advisor, Regents’ Professor Roy Parker. The pair reported their findings this week in the journal Science. read story