Darwin other research news
The Bothell, Wash., company sequenced a gene from members of families that inherit an early-onset form of Alzheimer's. As published in Science, the gene in the families, descended from Germans who settled in the Volga valley in Russia, is on chromosome 1. This altered gene, STM2, is similar to a mutated gene on chromosome 14, also associated with an inherited form of Alzheimer's. A third mutation linked to familial Alzheimer's, on chromosome 21, affects the amyloid precursor protein.
The role of the two gene products from chromosomes 1 and 14 are yet to be determined. Their sequences show that the mutations affect the part of the proteins that span the cell membrane. According to a commentary in Science, cells from patients with the chromosome 14 mutation show increased production of beta-amyloid. ...