Study offers clue to how cells are programmed

A landmark internationalstudy involving University of Queensland researchers has discovered how human and mammal cells develop specialised functions.

UQs Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Associate Professor Christine Wells said the FANTOM5 consortium research would help scientists better understand human development disorders and how bodies respond to stress or infection.

Human life begins from a single fertilised egg which divides repeatedly to form all the different types of cells a body requires to function, Dr Wells said.

The FANTOM5 (Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome ) team appears to have uncovered a key part of the puzzle about how cells differentiate to perform different functions and develop into more specialised cell types, such as brain cells, blood cells or muscle cells.

The team showed that when cells turn on new genes, this process starts from enhancer regions, a type of DNA switch and key regulatory elements throughout the genome.

We knew enhancers played a role in development, but this research shows they are much more dynamic than initially thought, and are responsible for activating a cell to react to its environment, Dr Wells said.

The research examined 19 human cell types and 14 mouse cell types and showed that the enhancers activate a specific type of regulatory gene.

The regulatory gene has the ability to activate other genes over time, forming a cascade of changes, Dr Wells said.

These patterns were shared across all the different types of cells studied.

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Study offers clue to how cells are programmed