Functional Identification of Neural Genes
Lawrence H. Pinto, Joseph S. Takahashi · 2001
A series of single gene mutations, affecting enzymes within a particular pathway, can each perturb the product of the pathway, e.g., by reducing the function of the essential enzymes. The demonstration that the Shaker gene encoded a potassium channel and the subsequent cloning of this gene facilitated the identification of several other families of ion channels and led to a detailed knowledge of their structure-function relationship. The advantage of functional rescue of a mutation lies in the demonstration that unit of deoxyribonucleic acid used for rescue contains the genetic information that was altered by the mutation. The gene of interest may map to a region of the genome containing genes which, when mutated, might be expected to yield the mutant phenotype. Modifier screens have the additional advantage of being able to reveal alleles of the original gene. False positives present a great practical problem for genetic screening projects.