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The crazy tale of the Belgian Blue’s coat
3/27/12

On the trail of similar events in other genomes

The results of this research, published at the beginning of February in the journal Nature (1), took the Unit of Animal Genomics well beyond their initial goal. Indeed, while the analyses of the “lineback” cattle genome have allowed scientists to determine the chromosomal regions responsible for this phenotype, they have also led to the discovery of a brand new genetic mechanism. 


As shown in this study, this duplicative translocation mechanism by means of circular intermediates lies behind the structural polymorphisms in the bovine genome. It isn’t difficult to guess the rest of Carole Charlier’s and her colleagues’ reasoning: “This type of mechanism must exist within other genomes and may lead to the creation of particular phenotypes. Each time a chromosome segment translocates and inserts itself elsewhere, it is likely to modify genes in the insertion area where it can take a piece of gene with it. This type of modification could be the source of diseases or other defects in man for instance”, the researcher explains.  Finding the traces of this mechanism within other genomes is therefore the new mission the  Liége team is determined to accomplish!

Molecular-mecanism

(1) Keith Durkin, Wouter Coppieters, Cord Drögemüller, Naima Ahariz, Nadine Cambisano, Tom Druet, Corinne Fasquelle, Aynalem Haile, Petr Horin, Lusheng Huang, Yohichiro Kamatani, Latifa Karim, Mark Lathrop, Simon Moser, Kor Oldenbroek, Stefan Rieder, Arnaud Sartelet, Johann Sölkner, Hans Stålhammar, Diana Zelenika, Zhiyan Zhang, Tosso Leeb, Michel Georges & Carole Charlier. Serial translocation by means of circular intermediates underlies colour sidedness in cattle. Nature 482, 81–84 (02 February 2012) doi:10.1038/nature10757

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