Mutating mice with oligos
The results reported by Vasquez et al. in the 20 October Science sound like a dream come true: the induction, after a simple injection of oligonucleotides into adult mice, of site-specific mutations (Science 2000, 290:530-533). The oligonucleotides are designed to form triple helices in polypurine regions with segments of mononucleotide repeats. The triple helix is thought to induce repair processes that often slip, producing short insertions or deletions near the site of the triple helix. Thus
Oct 22, 2000
The results reported by Vasquez