© 2002 Archives of Disease in Childhood
LEADING ARTICLE
Genetics
In sickness and in health: the importance of translational regulation
Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College, London, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr P Reynolds, British Heart Foundation Research Training Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, Division of Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Du Cane Road, London W12 0NN, UK;
p.reynolds@ic.ac.uk
An important mechanism for regulating protein expression
Keywords: translational regulation; mRNA; gene; iron
Abbreviations: FGF-2, fibroblast growth factor 2; FMRP, fragile X mental retardation protein; GM-CSF, granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor; IGF, insulin like growth factor; IL, interleukin; IRE, iron responsive element; IRP, iron responsive protein; TGFß, transforming growth factor ß; TNF
, tumour necrosis factor ; UTR, untranslated region; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor
In 2001, the first draft of the human genome was published.1,2 Paediatricians from all disciplines can look forward to important and novel insights into the genetic basis for numerous diseases that affect children and their families. The surprising finding that our genome consists of 30–40 000 genes, only slightly larger than that of the plant Arabidopsis thalania (25 498 genes),3 has now focused scientific study towards protein expression (termed proteomics), which is considerably more complex. It is also becoming apparent that defects in the mechanisms of protein expression are associated with human disease.
Since Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA in 1953, molecular biologists have done much to clarify the processes by which the genes contained in DNA are converted into proteins. Production of protein depends on transcription of the gene, which is controlled by a large number of factors interacting with various regulatory elements associated
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