Some new research published in Science Dailycaught my eye. It’s very interesting stuff because of the potential implications to the early diagnosis and treatment of many genetic birth¬†defects like Down’s Syndrome and the like.

Essentially, the principal investigator in this trial (Hong-Guo Yu) was looking at the role of Pds5 in meiosis. When it’s there, the DNA in cells can split properly. When it’s not, however, all kinds of weirdness can happen.

They created a yeast that would suppress Pds5 during meiosis (and ONLY during meiosis) and watched as the normally routine splitting of the genetic material went absolutely balls out nuts.

Now, I don’t pretend to truly understand the process, and they go into a great deal of explanation on the site (so click the link, dammit), but I will say that it seems pretty understandable. This Pds5 is essentially like the parent sitting over his¬†three year old’s shoulder helping them with a puzzle. When the parent’s present, they help the child put all the pieces in all the right places, but when daddy’s out getting lotto tickets, all of the sudden Junior has no idea how to put the puzzle together. The end result of Junior’s work is not likely to be a properly assembled puzzle, but more likely than not some chaotic mashup.

I don’t know in what ways this research can be useful as I’m by no means a molecular biologist, but I would hope that the more we understand the cause of these issues, the more we can do to prevent them.