Designing gene
Scientists at Harvard University are moving closer to answering some age-old questions. How did the leopard get its spots? How did the zebra get its stripes? The answer may be a gene called agouti, which the Harvard team has found governs color patterns in deer mice, the most widespread mammal in North America. This gene, found in all vertebrates, may establish color pattern in a wide variety of species, a process that has been poorly understood at both the molecular and the evolutionary level. “The question of how color patterns are established in vertebrates has been a black box,” says Marie Manceau, a research associate in Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and lead author of a paper appearing this week in the journal Science. “Taking advantage of the simple color pattern of deer mice — which have a dark back and a light belly — we showed that small changes in...