Genetic watches in mammal cells

2009/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika

Biologists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have created a clocklike structure in a mammal cell. This has already been achieved in bacteria, but mammalian cells are much more complex. Swiss researchers have used the trick of adding a gene to the cell that cyclically stops its own expression. The result of gene activation is gene deactivation. Thus produce the clock pulses and a long backward reading of the DNA molecule controls the time between pulses.