Does the DSPP gene have the potential to become a tool in tracking human migration?
McKnight: We hope so. We’re totally open to helping other groups that might be interested in giving it a try. The gene is extremely data rich, but the data come with a technical downside. Subcloning and sequencing DSPP is quite labor intensive. For example, it wouldn’t be practical to include DSPP in a study that involves processing thousands of DNA samples. It would be way too cumbersome. But, again, the gene is extremely data rich and, for some specific studies, it may be worth the effort. So you set out to clone the gene and ended up knee deep in evolutionary genetics. Meanwhile, you pursued another investigative angle to the story. Fisher: Right, about the time that Dee arrived in my lab, another group reported that differences in exon five were one cause of the form of DI that is seen in the much-studied Brandywine isolate, a tri-racial group of people from southern Maryland. As Dee looked at her preliminary results, we saw differences in people with normal teeth that were more dr
