Genome sequence of a diabetes-prone rodent

(University of Oxford) Sequencing the genome of the sand rat, a desert rodent susceptible to nutritionally induced diabetes, revealed an unusual chromosome region skewed toward G and C nucleotides. This region includes the Pdx1 homeobox gene, a transcriptional activator of insulin, which has undergone massive sequence change, likely contributing to diabetes and adaptation to low caloric intake, implying that mutation rate varies within a genome and that hotspots of high mutation rate may influen...