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Article: Researchers find gene key to production of egg and sperm.
- Article from:
- Genomics & Genetics Weekly
- Article date:
- January 23, 2004
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2004 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For all its importance in sexual reproduction, the process of creating eggs and sperm, called meiosis, is still poorly understood.
How the chromosomes in germ cells pair off, trade a few genes, and split to give each gamete half a normal complement of genes is so complicated that researchers have had a hard time making sense of the mechanisms involved.
A team of biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, has now found a key gene involved in the first step in the process. The gene, isolated from corn, allows chromosomes floating around in the cell's nucleus to recognize and pair with their homologs in ...