Genetics

A group of senators has asked the Food and Drug Administration to abandon its approval process of genetically engineered salmon as food, threatening to push legislation to strip the FDA's funding to study the fish if the agency does not comply. Eight senators sent a letter dated July 15 to the FDA asking it to "immediately cease" consideration of such salmon, a product brought before the agency by AquaBounty Technologies 15 years ago. AquaBounty's proposal calls for the embryos of the fish to be sterilized in Canada before being shipped to Panama, where the males would be exposed to estrogen and sex-reversed.

Scientists have discovered a genetic defect that causes hyperactivity, marking the first time a specific inborn flaw has been linked to a common behavioral problem. The discovery should allow doctors to spot newborns who are likely to develop the disorder, and it should provide clues about the disorder's cause and treatment.

Genetics play a big role in anorexia nervosa, the exaggerated fear of weight gain that causes many young women to starve themselves, researchers have found. A study of twins in Sweden found that about 56% of the risk for developing the eating disorder is based on family history, the report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said. Other unspecified factors triggered the disorder in 44% of the cases, the study said.

Police skirmished with protesters Monday near a downtown hotel where an international conference of scientists had convened to discuss the latest advances in animal genetics. Eighty people were arrested, Police Chief Robert Olson said. One police officer suffered a minor injury; no major injuries were reported among protesters, though dozens were hit with pepper spray and others were struck with police batons. "We tried to be as gentle as we could," Olson said. "They want to shut down our city.

Just how similar are the Japanese and Indonesians, apart from being Asians? Although their physical appearances have a range of differences, their genetic makeup could reveal more similarities than their looks suggest, scientists said Friday at the launch of a study on the genetic profile of Asians.

Oxford University said it has licensed a new technology for analyzing genetic material to Beckman Instruments Inc. of Fullerton. Beckman scientists said Tuesday they hope that the technology, developed by Oxford Prof. Ed Southern, can be commercialized in an instrument that could analyze the sequence of genes--and spot abnormal ones--more quickly and accurately than existing technology.

Scientists said Wednesday that they have drawn a detailed "map" that promises to speed the hunt for genes that cause cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and mental disorders. The genetic map, a first of its kind, consists of more than 400 "marker" genes spaced at regular intervals along the 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain a person's 100,000 genes. These markers act like street signs, allowing scientists to tell on which chromosome a disease gene lies.

Ever since my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years ago, I've had this nagging fear that I'm doomed to confront the disease too. Perhaps I'm like a lot of men in that regard. We're more fatalistic than women when it comes to our health and well-being. That is, I think a guy is more likely to take the "chip off the old block" thing a little too seriously, and see his father's fate as a blueprint of his own.

Federal researchers say they have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that homosexuality is genetic in origin. Studies in 40 families in which two brothers are gay suggest that much male homosexuality may have its roots in a gene located in a small region of the X chromosome, the sex-linked chromosome that men inherit from their mothers, according to a report published today in the journal Science. The researchers, led by molecular geneticist Dean H.

Researchers have discovered an unprecedented and unsuspected deviation from one of the fundamental dogmas of molecular biology: that all genetic information is contained in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and that this information is faithfully copied in the production of proteins and other cellular components. The discovery may trigger a fundamental rethinking of mechanisms by which genetic information is converted into living organisms.