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News and Views
Nature 432, 960-961 (23 December 2004) | doi:10.1038/432960b; Published online 22 December 2004
Molecular biology: Hairpins at split ends in DNA
Marjorie A. Oettinger1
Abstract
What do changing colours in corn kernels, mutations in houseflies and the variability of antibodies and of a T cell's antigen receptors in the vertebrate immune system have in common? A great deal, it turns out.
There once would have seemed to be little similarity between the random movement of transposable genetic elements within a fly, or a corn plant, or a flower petal, and the carefully orchestrated events by which antigen-receptor genes are assembled. The jumping of 'transposons' from one site to another in a genome can alter gene expression, giving rise to mutations that are seen as, for example, a colour change.
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