child devil of tuna

Taking a break from writing my genetics lab report and my senior thesis. Since I have biology on the brain, you all get a lesson:

Fruit flies are widely used by geneticists. There are a huge variety of mutant flies one could potentially use for his or her studies. There are the standard mutated genes (ie the gene "white" which causes flies to have white eyes or "singed" which causes a fly's bristles to look, well, singed), and then there are the not-so-standard mutanted genes. And I am not making up these names.

"Prune" causes flies to have wrinkly wings.
"Killer of Prune" causes only flies with wrinkly wings to die.
"Shaven Baby" flies have no bristles.
"Cheap Date" flies lack a good copy of the gene that encodes alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Therefore, these flies get drunk faster than normal flies when exposed to alcohol.

Then there are plant geneticists (some of you might remember this from my AIM profile a few months back):

In plants, there is a gene which was named "Superman" because mutating this gene (either by deletion or methylation) causes the flowers of the plant to have 12 stamens instead of 6 (superplant? whatever). The methylated (ie mutated) form of the gene is called "Clark Kent." Normal function of "Clark Kent" can be restored by the mutated form of a protein named "Kryptonite," a methyltransferase. The mutated form is unable to silence the "Superman" since it cannot properly methylate the DNA so the flowers will still have the normal number of stamens.

And finally, a little bit of mouse genetics (to commemorate the completed sequencing of the mouse genome earlier this year):

Mice have a gene that is homologous to the gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis in humans. Mutating this gene in mice does NOT cause Cystic Fibrosis in the mice. Instead, it causes Chronic Bowel Obstruction Syndrome.

Now, with all of this great knowledge of genetics, if only we could find the human gene for "Likes to Procrastinate" so that I can silence all copies of it and get cracking on this thesis...

posted by Grace @ 4/08/2003 09:24:00 PM