Genetic Switch
Reported October 20, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Scientists say a genetic discovery in fruit flies could help better understand how injuries occur during a heart attack or stroke. Researchers say they have identified a genetic switch in fruit flies that helps oxygen-deprived cells survive.
Deprivation of oxygen to vital organs can happen during a heart attack, stroke or other respiratory condition. Scientists know most life forms are able to stop non-essential activity in order to survive oxygen deprivation, but they didnt know why or how.
A transcriptional suppressor, which we call hairy, is crucial for reducing the mismatch between supply and demand of oxygen, lead study author Dan Zhou, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UC San Diego, was quoted as saying.
We discovered that the hairy gene binds to and shuts off, or suppresses, activation of many genes, Gabriel G. Haddad, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Neurosciences, Chair of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at the Rady Childrens Hospital, San Diego, was quoted as saying. When hairy is activated, it puts the brakes on various signaling pathways in the cell, enabling the cells to become resistant to the low-oxygen environment.
This genetic switch allows the cells to conserve energy for critical functions in the fly. They say this discovery may help them come up with a better survival plan for human cells that are deprived of oxygen.
SOURCE: Public Library of Science, 2008