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‘Vestigial’ RNA
runs interference
By Tina Hesman Saey
Deploying doppelgängers to distract
pesky hangers-on isn’t reserved for
paparazzi-plagued Hollywood heartthrobs. Some genes use look-alikes as
decoys to distract mobs of interfering
molecules, a new study shows.
The decoys, known as pseudogenes,
are defective copies of protein-encoding
genes. Many pseudogenes can make RNA
copies of the instructions in their DNA
but have flaws that prevent that RNA
from being converted into proteins.
Because pseudogenes don’t sire proteins, most biologists have thought of
them as vestigial copies of functioning
genes. But a study in the June 24 Nature
shows that pseudogenes may in fact be
important regulators of their protein-encoding twins.
The demonstration that pseudo-
genes may indeed have a function could
transform biology, says study leader Pier
Paolo Pandolfi of Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center in Boston and Harvard
Medical School. The finding has already
altered the perspectives of people in his
lab, he says. “Now we are unable to think
the same. It changes the way we do biol-
ogy on a daily basis.”
Pandolfi’s group found that RNA from
a pseudogene called PTENP1 draws
tiny regulatory molecules
called microRNAs away
from PTEN, a powerful
anticancer gene.
By Tina Hesman Saey
Rare variations in a single gene can lead
to a wide variety of autoimmune disorders including diabetes, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, a new study shows.
The gene in question encodes an
enzyme called sialic acid acetylesterase
or SIAE, which regulates the activity
of the immune system’s antibody-pro-
ducing B cells. About 2 to 3 percent of
people with autoimmune disorders
have defects in SIAE that allow B cells
to run amok and make antibodies that
attack the body, a team led by Shiv
Pillai of Massachusetts General Hospi-
tal and Harvard Medical School report
online June 16 in Nature. The finding
suggests that enhancing the enzyme’s
activity could help people with autoim-
mune disorders.
