Ground Report

US researchers have identified a gene that is the key switch that allows embryonic cells to form into muscles in zebrafish.According to Monte Westerfield, a professor of biology and researcher in the University of Oregon Institute of Neuroscience,the trigger gene,which is identified as Smarcd3,must align correctly with two other genes for muscle formation to begin,a process known as myogenesis.Smarcd3 proteins are part of a chromatin-remodelling complex made up of DNA and proteins that make up chromosomes.