CANCER OR MORE BOYS: A mutated form of the human gene for breast cancer is also responsible for producing more male progeny in C. elegans worms, pictured here.PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC., SINCLAIR STAMMERS
K.L. McGary et al., “Systematic discovery of nonobvious human disease models through orthologous phenotypes,” PNAS, 107:6544-49, 2010.
Edward Marcotte, of the University of Texas at Austin, was always interested in how the same groups of conserved genes could be linked to such different traits in different organisms. For example, mutated forms of the BRCA1 gene, which are associated with breast cancer in humans, are also responsible for a higher frequency of male progeny in C. elegans. Searching for common gene networks or systems across very different species, Marcotte and his colleagues uncovered surprising relationships—coined phenologs—that could help locate new disease-related genes or be used to screen therapeutic compounds.
Using a database of gene-phenotype relationships, as well as raw literature searches, the group found 3,755 phenologs ...
