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The Solution of the Sherman Paradox or the Successful Search for the Huntington Gene
Author(s) -
Winnacker ErnstL.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition in english
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 0570-0833
DOI - 10.1002/anie.199314151
Subject(s) - chorea , disease , gene , chromosome , dance , sequence (biology) , genetics , biology , neuroscience , medicine , literature , pathology , art
With the help of reverse genetics the gene whose changes cause Huntington chorea, also known as St. Vitus's dance, was identified from a 500 000 base‐pair sequence of the short arm of chromosome 4 several months ago. This rare hereditary disease usually breaks out between the ages of 35 and 50, and is characterized by disturbances of the motor and neural systems, and inevitably leads to death. The genetic reason appears to be repetitions of a certain base triplet; the greater their number, the earlier the disease breaks out. How this “molecular disease” was tracked down is described in an intelligible and absorbing way.