Tag Archives: Mutation

Hsp90: translating environmental stress into evolutionary change

16 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in Development, Evolution, Form, Insects, Plants

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In the 1990s, Suzanne Rutherford and Susan Lindquist were studying fruit flies with a mutated version of the Hsp90 gene and found that the absence of this single gene led to a wide range of developmental defects.  This was surprising not only because Hsp90 isn’t directly related to development, but also because of the remarkable breadth of its impact.  Uncovering how this gene affects so many aspects of development has led to an intriguing story linking responses to environmental stress with the evolution of developmental pathways.
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Gene expression: shape matters

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Bacteria, Form, Genetics

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Electron micrograph of Escherichia coli (Image via Wikipedia)A recent paper describes how the mutation of a single gene is sufficient to turn a harmless bacterium found in our gut into an invasive pathogen. Taken alone, this isn’t terribly surprising; many genes regulate the expression of other genes and some (“master” genes) act as switches that control a whole host of other genes.  The gene mutated in this study isn’t one of these “master” genes, though; it’s a structural gene and there’s a much more  intriguing reason for its broad impact on the bacterium.