No gene is an island: Gene's position on chromosome affects mutations
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 - 02:32
in Biology & Nature
Genes do not exist in isolation. Like beads on a string, they sit next to each other on long DNA molecules called chromosomes. So far, little has been known about how the position of a gene on a chromosome affects its evolution. A new study by Calin Guet, Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), and Magdalena Steinrück, PhD student in Guet's group, shows that a gene's neighborhood can influence whether and how the activity of a gene changes. The study was published today in the open access journal eLife.