Jackson research team finds protein controlling chromosome recombination “hotspots”

http://caml.inria.fr/pub/old_caml_site/icfp00-contest/images/protein.jpeg

Key Ideas:

• Jackson Laboratory scientists have found that a protein, Prdm9, turns certain locations on chromosomes into "hotspots" of recombination activity during reproduction.
• Genetic recombination is a fundamental part of sexual reproduction because it ensures greater genetic diversity and helps with the separation of chromosomes.
• The gene is expressed during early meiosis, and its absence causes sterility in both sexes. Its "job" is adding methyl groups to histones in a specific way within the DNA.
• Prmd9 is the first protein to be identified in the mammalian recombination hotspot control system.
• Further research will investigate whether Prmd9 controls the activation of all recombination hotspots or whether it is a member of a family of regular proteins and only regulates a subset of proteins.

Reflection

This story was about a new function of the function of the protein, Prmd9. Its function is to turn certain locations on chromosomes into "hotspots" of recombination activity during reproduction. This story tells us that there are different functions of this particular protein. I don't know that a protein could have multiple functions in the body, so I think its interesting to find out these types of things. This process is taking place inside all of us, but we can't feel the process happening inside our bodies, which shows how amazing the human body is. The scientists who had to do this research on this protein must've felt proud when they came to this discovery. This course helped me to understand this topic because we studied proteins.

MLA: "Jackson Research Team Finds Protein Controlling Chromosome Recombination "hotspots" - Insciences." Insciences.org|anisation. 1 Jan. 2010. Web. http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=8053.