Genes: the full map of their function

The Human Genome Project had done most of the work from 1990 to 2003. Now that the refinements of the T2T Consortium have come in 2022, it has donated a whole bunch without flaws and holes. There are a total of 20,000 genes, and there are more that are transcribed into RNA without being translated into proteins.

Is it feasible to link a specific function to all these genes? Well, yes. Jonathan Weissman and his team used a technique based on CRISPR and from the name Perturb-seq. This method produced the first functional map of all human genes. From all this an excellent result has been obtained: an open database that is useful to be interrogated by all researchers worldwide.

Perturb-seq was born in 2016, then a more powerful version came out in 2020. A CRISPR method for insertion genetic changes and then compare their effects with RNA produced in individual cells before and after the change. In 2021, the first application was useful to study the mechanisms of herpes virus infections and the interaction between human and viral genes. It is clear how the analysis of a single cell makes it possible to assign a function to the genes, still mysterious. In short, focus on still obscure processes.

The discovery is that the C7orf26 gene is part of a complex called Integrator involved in the production of small nuclear RNAs. However, the real curiosity was the discovery of factors necessary for justice to break down of the chromosomes during cell divisions. In addition, perturb-seq has been shown to be useful for studying interactions between the genes of the nucleus and the mitochondria, responsible for cellular respiration. They are very susceptible to stress, but do not lose their DNA kit. In any case, one thing is certain: the database will still have to be queried in order to provide further answers to the researchers.