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Pedigree for central precocious puberty

The storybook character Peter Pan may have escaped the fate, but in the real world growing up is inevitable. Biologically speaking, the turn to adulthood happens in humans when the brain tells the pituitary glands to start producing hormones, jump-starting puberty. This typically happens around age 10 in girls and 11 in boys. But, for a small percentage of children, the process can start much earlier. If the brain initiates the process before age 8 in girls or 9 in boys, the child experiences central precocious (or “early”) puberty.

Several years ago, researchers sequencing lung cancer genomes encountered a peculiar problem. After combing through thousands of genes in a large number of patients, they had come up with a list of likely genetic suspects tied to the disease. Most of these genes made sense – some had previously been implicated in cancer, others clearly played an important biological role. But the data also pointed to a group of genes encoding olfactory receptors – the proteins that allow us to smell. Why were so many of these genes cropping up? Could these possibly be culprit genes? In the end, researchers found that they were simply red herrings – distractions along the way to pinpointing the mutations driving cancer.