Scientists have discovered how two proteins called BERT and ERNI interact in embryos to control when different organ systems start to form. Apparently BERT binds to ERNI to unblock the transcription factor Sox2. Seriously.
The paper is over at PLoS Biology.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
I was talking about sex and nothing but sex all last week in genetics, which is far less titillating than it sounds. My focus was entirely on operational genetics, that is, how autosomal inheritance vs inheritance of factors on sex chromosomes differ, and I only hinted at how sex is not inherited…
In my previous comments about maternal effect genes, I was talking specifically about one Drosophila gene, bicoid, which we happen to understand fairly well. We know its sequence, we know how it is controlled, and we know what it does; we know where it falls in the upstream and downstream flow of…
One concept that is sometimes used in developmental biology is the idea of the "master control gene" or "master switch" — a single gene whose expression is both necessary and sufficient to trigger activation of many other genes in a coordinated fashion, leading to the development of a specific…
"MIT researchers have discovered why an unusually short bacterial protein can have many more interactions than would normally be expected of something its size."
The team, led by biology professor Graham Walker, found that the protein, UmuD, belongs to a recently discovered class of proteins called…
So they have finally discovered the gay gene?
Ba-ZIIING!
HJ
We should start a movement to get Sox2 renamed to Argyle Sox.
Win.
using this picture to help carve pumpkins. thanks for posting the pic.
wow, i too am using this for a pumpkin except my pumpkin is putting bert in a precarious position in front of ernie. haha dropping the soap position