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Name: Joe
Status: Student
Grade:  9-12
Location: NY
Country: United States
Date: September 2006
Question:
The scientist at

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392718say

that Klotho is a minor aging gene in humans and there are several other genes that interfer or control it eventually leading p to a master aging gene says Cynthia Kenyon at

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392210&language=english.

My question is how do you know when one gene is being affected or controlled by another gene and how do you find the controlling gene?


Replies:
If the product (usually an enzyme) of a gene is either over-produced or not produced at all and the mutation causing this abnormal expression maps to a location different from the enzyme's gene, then it is obvious that the mutation occurred in a gene that somehow controls the enzyme gene. For an example in bacteria, look up the "lac operon" or the Jacob and Monod model. Jacob and Monod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1965.

Ron Baker, Ph.D.


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