1.   But doctors have not yet formulated their own message for the healthy women who carry these mutated genes.

2.   For patients with a family history of colon cancer, one in three carried the mutated gene.

3.   When introduced in test tubes, resistant enterococci read ily transfer their mutated genes for vancomycin resistance to staph bugs.

4.   Although blacks, for example, virtually never have the mutated gene, they may have other genes that confer resistance to AIDS.

5.   Blacks and Asians seem not to have the mutated gene.

6.   A woman who has the mutated gene could take certain precautions, such as quitting smoking or stopping use of birth control pills.

7.   Both men and women with the mutated gene, in the bottom half of the X chromosome, exhibit the hairiness, but show no other abnornmalities.

8.   But before any woman found to have a mutated gene undergoes prophylactic surgery, the gene test should be repeated.

9.   By contrast, the mutated gene was not significantly associated with cardiovascular disease in whites.

10.   Carriers have one copy of the mutated gene associated with the disease, while sufferers of hemochromatosis inherit one mutated gene from each parent.