BUdR, probability and cell variants: Towards a molecular understanding of the decision to differentiate

✍ Scribed by Woodring E. Wright

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 859 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950030603

✦ Synopsis

Sum ma ry

The mechanism(s) by which the thymidine analogue 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) speciJically inhibits the expression of diferentiated functions is poorly understood, as are the ways in which cells regulate processes exhibiting probabilistic aspects. I have developed a theoretical model for the regulation of the decision of myogenic cells to diferentiate that can explain both of the above phenomena. This model provided a strategy for isolating myoblast variants that had amplijied the expression of the factors regulating the decision to diferentiate. These myoblasts served as the source of mRNA for making andscreening a cDNA library in order to isolate these factors. The successful cloning of these genes should represent a major advance in our understanding of the molecular basis for the major coordinated changes in gene expression

that accompany cell differentiation.