Scientists Recreate an Ancient Gene

MONDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- In an effort to better understand evolution, U.S. scientists reversed the process and reconstructed a 530-million-year-old gene by combining segments of two modern mouse genes that descended from the ancient one.

The process of a single gene dividing into multiple genes, which then mutate, "has occurred many times in evolution, but no one has put it back together again. We are the first to reconstruct an ancient gene," researcher Petr Tvrdik, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah, said in a prepared statement.

"We have proven that from two specialized modern genes, we can reconstruct the ancient gene they split off from. It illuminates the mechanisms and processes that evolution uses, and tells us more about how Mother Nature engineers life," Tvrdik added.

The genes in the study were Hox genes, which direct the action of other genes during embryo development. The findings were published Monday in the journal Developmental Cell.

"It provides further evidence at the molecular level of how evolution has occurred and is occurring, and thus makes the process less mysterious. We''ve shown some of the elements involved in the process of evolution by reversing this process and reconstructing a gene that later became two genes," Mario Capecchi, distinguished professor and co-chairman of human genetics at the university''s school of medicine, said in a prepared statement.

Being able to use modern genes to reconstruct ancient genes raises the possibility of a new kind of gene therapy, the researchers said. It may be possible to insert a portion of a related gene into a disease-causing mutant gene in order to restore normal function and cure the disease.

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SOURCE: University of Utah Health Sciences Center, news release, Aug. 7, 2006

Last Updated: Aug. 7, 2006