IF YOU’RE one of the 20 per cent of the population with gaps in your teeth you can blame it on your genes.
After studying 43 members of a Houston family with missing molars, researchers from the University of Texas and Baylor College of Medicine found that the missing teeth are linked with a mutation in the gene PAX9 —(Nature Genetics, vol 24, p 18). It is one of the genes that help to determine body shape and to form organs in the womb.
One of the researchers, Rena D’Souza, speculates that the mutation means that people do not…
