Julie Ahringer: Genes, Worms and the New Genetics

Synopsis: A recording of the Francis Crick Lecture delivered by Julie Ahringer at the Royal Society on 24 November 2004.

Over the past 20 years it has been discovered that all animals have many of the same genes and that they use them in similar ways to grow and develop. Now that we know the complete DNA sequences of several animals, we can see for example that 60% of genes in the small worm C elegans have a human counterpart. These similarities mean that much of what is learned about what genes do in simple animals such as worms can help us understand what human genes do. Using a remarkable new technique called RNA interference (RNAi), we can quickly test the function of individual genes. In this lecture Julie Ahringer discusses how she has applied the RNAi technique to worm genes to investigate for the first time what most of the genes in an animal do. Extending these approaches to other animals is speeding up the rate of biological discovery and understanding.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 2004
Year of production: 2004
Subjects: Biology
Keywords: genetic variation; genetics; genetic testing

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