John Manak, assistant professor of biology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and researcher in the Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics, published his research in the Sept. 4 online edition of the journal Public Library of Science-Genetics. He and his collaborators found that a class of DNA bound proteins normally thought to be involved in the repression of genes is also bound to active genes.

By looking at the whole organism as well as in a particular tissue, they were able to hone in on specific functions of these proteins. Since members of this class of proteins have been shown to produce cancers when altered, these data show that linkages between the genes of drosophila (fruit fly) and humans are gradually becoming clearer, bringing scientists closer to the goal of one day understanding the genetic causes of various cancers and other diseases in man.

"I use the drosophila homologues of human genes to help understand how the human genes function," Manak said. (more...)