Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each cell, divided into 23 pairs. Two copies of chromosome 6, one copy inherited from each parent, form one of the pairs. Chromosome 6 spans about 171 million base pairs (the building blocks of DNA) and represents between 5.5 percent and 6 percent of the total DNA in cells.
Identifying genes on each chromosome is an active area of genetic research. Because researchers use different approaches to predict the number of genes on each chromosome, the estimated number of genes varies. Chromosome 6 likely contains between 1,100 and 1,600 genes.
Genes on chromosome 6 are among the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 total genes in the human genome.
A study led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and Harvard Medical School has identified seven genetic risk factors DNA sequences carried by some people but not others that predict risk for prostate cancer.
Researchers report the identification of a gene that may play a role in susceptibility to osteoporosis, the crippling disease that leads to bone fractures, especially of the hip and spine.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified the genetic culprits that trigger a hereditary form of a fatal lung disease.
Yale School of Medicine autism experts Fred Volkmar, M.D. and Ami Klin are part of a global research consortium from 19 countries to identify a gene and a region of a chromosome that may lead to autism in children.
Researchers in the United States have discovered that an old drug once used to study epilepsy substantially improved learning and memory in mice with Down syndrome symptoms.
MicroRNAs are tiny snippets of RNA that can repress activity of a gene by targeting the gene's messenger RNA (which copies DNA information and starts the process of protein production).
A Johns Hopkins-led study has found evidence that a genetic tendency toward suicide has been linked to a particular area of the genome on chromosome 2 that has been implicated in two additional recent studies of attempted suicide.
The genomes of the largest collection of families with multiple cases of autism ever assembled have been scanned and the preliminary results published in Nature Genetics. They provide new insights into the genetic basis of autism.
An international team of scientists have discovered two new genetic links that may predispose children to develop autism.
Preliminary findings from the largest genome scan ever completed in the history of autism research are being published in Nature Genetics. University of Pittsburgh researchers with a consortium of scientists from across the world contributed to this landmark research endeavor through the Autism Genome Project.
In families with a high incidence of Li-Fraumeni syndrome, the ends of individuals' chromosomes act somewhat like a lit fuse, according to researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Their findings detail how telomeres, the ends of the chromosomes, shorten with every successive generation, leading to more severe cancers at an earlier age.
A decades-old cancer mystery has been solved by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). "We not only found a critical tumor suppressor gene, but have revealed a master switch for a tumor suppressive network that means more targeted and effective cancer therapy in the future," said CSHL Associate Professor Alea Mills, Ph.D.
The first draft of the horse genome sequence has been deposited in public databases and is freely available for use by biomedical and veterinary researchers around the globe, leaders of the international Horse Genome Sequencing Project announced today.
Wielding a palette of chromosome paints, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have taken a step closer to understanding the relationship between aging and cancer by visualizing chromosomes of cells from patients with a heritable premature aging disease known as Werner Syndrome.
Studying mutations that give rise to a rare genetic disease, genetics researchers have identified a novel biological pathway that may have a broader role during human development, potentially in cases of mental retardation and autism.
A new technique that employs RNA, a tiny chemical cousin of DNA, to turn on genes could lead to therapeutics for conditions in which nudging a gene awake would help alleviate disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center say.
A research team at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of Heidelberg has proven that a gene protects some people with diabetes from developing severe kidney failure or "end-stage renal disease."
In a new and unique study to determine if genes on the Y chromosome are involved in prostate cancer, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in conjunction with Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that men who had only daughters had a higher risk of prostate cancer than men who had at least one son, thus signifying a possible defect on the father's Y chromosome.
Researchers have found that a class of RNA molecules, previously thought to have no function, may in fact protect sex cells from self-destructing. These findings will be published in the November 17 issue of the journal Cell.
Researchers at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah have identified a gene called HTRA1 that contributes to a major risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world.
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