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Published online 21 December 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news061218-12

News

Silent mutations speak up

Overlooked genetic changes could impact on disease.

Biologists have realized that the genetic code harbours a layer of information that they have largely ignored. Again.

This time, the focus is on 'silent' mutations, single letter changes that were, as their name suggests, generally thought to have little impact on that gene's instructions for making protein.

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