So few genes, so much complexity (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, July 18, 2014, 15:19 (3781 days ago)

How a gene is refined in many ways in cells for different functions:-“This is an interesting finding and fits into the existing paradigm that, in many cases, a single gene is processed in various ways [in the cell] to have alternative functions,” said­ Steven Brenner, a computational genomics researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.
 
The team is now investigating the potentially unique roles of these protein splice variants in greater detail—in both human tissue as well as in model organisms. For example, it is not yet clear whether any of these variants directly bind tRNAs.
 
“I do think [these proteins] will play some biological roles,” said Tao Pan, who studies the functional roles of tRNAs at the University of Chicago. “I am very optimistic that interesting biological functions will come out of future studies on these variants.”