Damien Broderick wrote:
>`[Lee M.] Silver [of MOUSE GENETICS (OUP 1995) fame] told me that
>mouse researchers have even created mice that do not have [telomerase].
>The mice seemed healthy... are now up their fourth generation [sans
>telomerase]... yet to find anything wrong...' (p. 205).
Tony Benjamin Csoka
>Yes, the telomerase "knockout" mice (to use the jargon) were
>perfectly normal. They didn't even have increased rates of cancer,
>which I suppose was unexpected.
I don't see anything unexpected in that, if fact, it's hard to see how mice
without the enzyme telomerase could ever get cancer, unless the mice still
had a the telomerase gene somewhere and it just wasn't turned on to make the
enzyme. I'll bet somebody is exposing the mice to very carcinogenic chemicals
to see what happens.
I must admit that I would also expect the mice to have severe reproductive
difficulties, but if they really have gone through 4 generations then the
trouble can't be too bad. This probably means that we really don't understand
what's going on very well. Lots about this puzzle seem contradictory, but the
parts must fit together somehow.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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