'Missing' genetic link found in Dundee
source: http://news.stv.tv/scotland/tayside/270457-missing-genetic-link-found-in-dundee/
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Scientists in Scotland have discovered a "missing link" which helps them understand how human cells decode genes important for cell growth and multiplication.
The University of Dundee researchers are studying the process of transcription, in which cells copy the DNA of genes into Ribonucleic acid or RNA, ultimately leading to the manufacture of proteins.
RNA is one of the three major macromolecules - along with DNA and proteins - that are essential for all known forms of life.
Transcription must be tightly controlled because otherwise the cells can die or grow and multiply without restraint, as seen in certain human diseases including cancer.
Dr Joost Zomerdijk and his team have discovered a previously hidden link within the components of the transcription machinery.
He said: "My lab and I are extremely excited to have discovered this important missing link.
"Furthermore, this research, funded primarily by the Wellcome Trust, advances our understanding of how normal transcription is maintained and controlled in human cells, which will help us to work out how transcription becomes deregulated in certain diseased cells and, potentially, how we can reverse such deregulation."
Human cells contain three separate transcription machineries, each of which is important for transcription of a subset of genes within the cells.
Each of the three is made up of one specific RNA polymerase enzyme and several other groups of proteins that direct and control transcription activity.
While TFIIB proteins, or similar proteins, were found in the transcription machineries containing RNA polymerases II and III, a similar protein had not been identified as a component of the RNA polymerase I transcription machinery.
However the scientists have now discovered that the protein TAF1B, one of a group of proteins that directs the RNA polymerase I enzyme, is similar to TFIIB in structure and function.
Dr Zomerdijk said: "This discovery indicates that the three transcription machineries of human cells, which are likely to have evolved from a common ancestor, are even more similar than previously realised."
He and his colleagues work at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression in the College of Life Sciences at Dundee University.
Details of their findings are being published in a research paper in the journal Science.
The University of Dundee researchers are studying the process of transcription, in which cells copy the DNA of genes into Ribonucleic acid or RNA, ultimately leading to the manufacture of proteins.
RNA is one of the three major macromolecules - along with DNA and proteins - that are essential for all known forms of life.
Transcription must be tightly controlled because otherwise the cells can die or grow and multiply without restraint, as seen in certain human diseases including cancer.
Dr Joost Zomerdijk and his team have discovered a previously hidden link within the components of the transcription machinery.
He said: "My lab and I are extremely excited to have discovered this important missing link.
"Furthermore, this research, funded primarily by the Wellcome Trust, advances our understanding of how normal transcription is maintained and controlled in human cells, which will help us to work out how transcription becomes deregulated in certain diseased cells and, potentially, how we can reverse such deregulation."
Human cells contain three separate transcription machineries, each of which is important for transcription of a subset of genes within the cells.
Each of the three is made up of one specific RNA polymerase enzyme and several other groups of proteins that direct and control transcription activity.
While TFIIB proteins, or similar proteins, were found in the transcription machineries containing RNA polymerases II and III, a similar protein had not been identified as a component of the RNA polymerase I transcription machinery.
However the scientists have now discovered that the protein TAF1B, one of a group of proteins that directs the RNA polymerase I enzyme, is similar to TFIIB in structure and function.
Dr Zomerdijk said: "This discovery indicates that the three transcription machineries of human cells, which are likely to have evolved from a common ancestor, are even more similar than previously realised."
He and his colleagues work at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression in the College of Life Sciences at Dundee University.
Details of their findings are being published in a research paper in the journal Science.
