Master genes

Fig. 3. BRCAl, a master gene involved in DNA repair, transcriptional regulation and activation of mitotic checkpoints. (Reprinted with permission from Mullan et al. BRCAl A good predictive marker of drug sensitivity in breast cancer treatment Biochim Biophys Acta, in press, with kind permission from Elsevier).

It turns out that the huge variety of proteins is actually due largely to alternative splicing. The DNA does not make proteins directly each gene is first copied into RNA, a molecule similar to DNA but that codes in turn for the proteins directly. Since RNA sequences can be shuffled in various ways, this generates a variety of proteins, say four types, from each master gene. In billions of years of evolution the shuffled RNA molecules and resulting protein... 

O Malley, B. W. (2007) Coregulators from whence came these master genes . Mol. Endocrinol. 21, 1009-1013. 

The theory of the master gene. In The Neurosciences Second Study... 

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