DNA detectives can decode 'censored' genomes. When genetics pioneer James Watson released his genome sequence earlier this year, its 6 billion A's, T's, C's, and G's were partially censored.
He had removed all of the letter nucleotides in a gene called APOE, which can reveal a person's chance of developing Alzheimer's disease. Someone with two copies of a mutation in the gene is about 16 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's than someone with two normal copies of the gene. Similarly, when Harvard University linguist Steven Pinker announced on Monday that he would release his genome sequence, he also reserved the right to withhold the sequence of APOE. Yet just as magic-marker redactions in confidential papers can be revealed by holding them up to the light, censored human genomes can be filled in, according to a paper out today in the European Journal of Human Genetics (DOI: 0.1038/ejhg.2008.198). more... http://tinyurl.com/5alhtr _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
