New Gene for Alzheimer's Discovered

lily1984 submitted, created time 4 months 3 weeks (www.bloomberg.com)

Scientists have discovered a gene that raises the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease by as much as 77 percent and provides scientists with a second genetic target for developing new treatments for the disorder.

One copy of the gene, called calcium homeostasis modulator 1, or CALHM1, increases the likelihood of late-onset Alzheimer's by 44 percent, while two copies boost the risk 77 percent. About a quarter of the population has one copy, said study author Philippe Marambaud from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The research was published in the journal Cell

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Distinct mechanisms for trans-mediated mobilization of cellular RNAs by the LINE-1 reverse transcriptase

angelfish submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.genome.org)

"Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) sequences comprise 17% of human DNA and ongoing L1 retrotransposition continues to impact genome evolution. The L1-encoded proteins also can mobilize other cellular RNAs , which comprise 13% of human DNA. Here, they demonstrate that the trans-mediated mobilization of non-L1 RNAs can occur by either template choice or template-switching mechanisms. Remarkably, these mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, as both processes can operate sequentially on the same RNA template

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