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To: FaultLine who wrote (156)	12/4/2002 10:25:21 PM
From: FaultLine	Respond to of 603

Surprise, suprise... Here's the place to start: NCBI at the National Institutes of Health amd National Library of Medicine ncbi.nih.gov General Introduction Understanding nature's mute but elegant language of living cells is the quest of modern molecular biology. From an alphabet of only four letters representing the chemical subunits of DNA, emerges a syntax of life processes whose most complex expression is man. The unraveling and use of this "alphabet" to form new "words and phrases" is a central focus of the field of molecular biology. The staggering volume of molecular data and its cryptic and subtle patterns have led to an absolute requirement for computerized databases and analysis tools. The challenge is in finding new approaches to deal with the volume and complexity of data, and in providing researchers with better access to analysis and computing tools in order to advance understanding of our genetic legacy and its role in health and disease.

To: FaultLine who wrote (156)	12/5/2002 4:03:45 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

How the Mouse Genome Stacks Up sciencenow.sciencemag.org [ Somewhat less breathlessly . . . ] Three groups compared mouse DNA to human chromosome 21, which is completely finished and thoroughly analyzed. Two of these teams--one led by Marie-Laure Yaspo of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and the other by Andrea Ballabio of the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine in Naples, Italy--found the genes common to both species and then studied the expression of those genes in developing mice and in a variety of tissues. In another project, Stylianos Antonarakis and Emmanouil Dermitzakis of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, uncovered other long stretches of DNA outside genes that, because they are conserved through evolution, are likely to be important, perhaps as regulators of genes. In addition, a team from Japan's Institute for Chemical and Physical Research (RIKEN) released almost 61,000 sequences, called full-length cDNAs, derived from mouse RNA and representing blueprints for proteins. It turns out the number of cDNAs proved to be more than the number of genes, indicating that some genes are put together in various ways as they are expressed, says project leader Yoshihide Hayashizaki. Mouse researchers have their work cut out for them and are continuing to interpret the wealth of new data. But all in all, says Karen Artzt, a geneticist at the University of Texas, Austin, “the data are turning out to be as valuable as we hoped.”

To: FaultLine who wrote (156)	12/9/2002 12:31:09 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

Jewels That May Help Explain Behavioral Disorders Found Among "Junk" DNA sciencedaily.com The existence of smnRNAs has been known for some time. Until recently, they have been generally dismissed as unimportant. New studies are finding that they are actually quite abundant and involved in a wide variety of biological processes. As a result, some scientists are beginning to speculate that they may represent an entirely new class of gene and type of gene activity. McInnes cited the theoretical work of John Mattick and Michael Gagen at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Last year they published a lengthy paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution in which they argued that, rather than being useless, smnRNAs and introns – the sequences in the genome between genes that code for proteins that have been called junk DNA – form a powerful network that can turn ordinary genes on and off at the proper times. "It appears that smnRNA may be especially relevant for understanding behavioral differences," McInnes said, "because they appear to be particularly enriched in the brain. They represent a swift and energy efficient means of regulating gene expression and may be especially important for rapid regulatory events." Lack of expression of an smnRNA has already been strongly associated with one neuropsychiatric disorder, Prader Willi syndrome, McInnes reported. Prader-Willi syndrome is characterized by abnormally poor muscle tone and feeding difficulties in early infancy, followed by excessive eating and gradual development of morbid obesity. It is also accompanied by cognitive impairment. In the initial trial of their new screen, the Mt. Sinai researchers identified a possible smnRNA molecule produced by an intron of the human corticotrophin-releasing hormone gene. Corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) plays a key role in the response of humans and other mammals to external threats. It acts at a number of sites in the nervous system to control automatic, behavioral and immunological responses of stress. Alterations in CRH neural activity appear to contribute to a number of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety disorders and anorexia nervosa. In addition, the CRH smnRNA appears to form a complimentary match with a sequence in an untranslated region associated with a receptor, called the NMDA-glutamate receptor, which is widely implicated in schizophrenia and other degenerative neurological disorders.