Life Sciences

The cover and three articles in Science announce the identification of “the cystic fibrosis gene,” the gene in which the primary defect occurs to produce this devastating hereditary disease. The first paper reports locating the gene in a 250-kilobase region on chromosome 7; the second paper reports the 6.1 kilobase sequence of the gene and its presumedly membrane ATPase amino acid translation product; the third paper reports that mutations in 70% of cystic fibrosis patients result in the same loss of a single amino acid, phenylalanine-508.

J.M. Rommens, M.C. Iannuzzi, B.-S. Kerem, M.L. Drumm, et al., “Identification of the cystic fibrosis gene: chromosome walking and jumping,” Science, 245, 1059-65, 8 September 1989. (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; et al.)

J.R. Riordan, J.M. Rommens, B.-S. Kerem, N. Alon,...