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Overview
Jim Kennison, who heads the Section on Drosophila Gene Regulation, studies the genomics of pattern differentiation in Drosophila. The group defined cis-acting regulatory sequences in the Sex combs reduced gene, indicating that, after the end of embryogenesis, two genetic elements about 70 kb apart in the Sex combs reduced gene must be in cistrans-acting factors that maintain proper repression of the homeotic genes have been identified in screens for new recessive mutants in somatic clones. While characterizing the essential genes within two regions that span about 1% of the Drosophila genome, the group also identified the first gene desert in Drosophila, a region of 55kb with many evolutionarily conserved DNA sequences, but with no apparent function under laboratory conditions.