The rhythm of life may beat far deeper than anyone previously thought. And it may gyrate and pulse in a way that rivals the sensuous choreography of "Dirty Dancing."
In his Newark laboratory, David Kaback, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, has captured the remarkable and never before seen undulations of "dancing chromosomes," and his discovery may lead to way to prevent conditions like Down, Turner and Klinefelter's syndrome as well as lend insight into the causes of first trimester spontaneous miscarriages.
In lectures to researchers and medical and graduate students, Kaback refers to his discovery as "Dirty Dancing," which he also calls the "Mating Rites of Homologous Chromosomes." His work on the process of chromosome pairing has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the journal Genetics and is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Kaback's research focuses on meiosis, the specific type of division that takes place in sperm and egg cells. When most cells divide, the result is two new cells, each with 23 pairs of chromosomes. But during meiosis, sperm and egg cells are left with just 23 single chromosomes. When a sperm and egg cell combine, the single chromosomes become pairs.