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Study Identifies Genes Associated with Genomic Expansions that Cause Disease and Threaten Chromosome Integrity


September 9, 2012

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A study of more than 6,000 genes in a common species of yeast has identified the pathways that govern the instability of GAA/TTC repeats. In humans, the expansions of these repeats is known to inactivate a gene--FXN--which leads to Friedreich's ataxia, a neurodegenerative disease that is currently incurable. In yeast, long repeats also destabilize the genome, manifested by the breakage of chromosomes.Full Story

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Georgia Tech

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