Flip-Flopping Gene Expression Can Be Advantageous
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These two colors represent distinct phenotypes in an ensemble of virtual cells grown in three trilals, with snapshots taken at the same specified time for each trial. Credit: UCSD
One gene for pea pod color generates green pods while a variant of that gene gives rise to the yellow-pod phenotype, a feature that helped Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian priest and scientist, first describe genetic inheritance. However, many modern-day geneticists are focused on the strange ability of some genes to be expressed spontaneously in either of two possible ways.
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