and seventh grades in selected schools in Houston Independent School District.

David Zugheri, 43, is married with two children, but he didn't know what was in store when he read "My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood" by Rosemary Wells, Secundino Fernandez and Peter Ferguson to 35 Elrod fifth-graders. He read for about 30 minutes.

"Quite honestly that was the longest stretch of reading out loud that I had done in years," said Zugheri, who works for Envoy Mortgage.

"The children were fascinated by the story. I didn't think they would be, this being my first time doing this."

"My book was about a child that had come to America," Zugheri said.

More Information Real Men Read What: A mentoring program in which men from the community volunteer an hour a month toTrans-regulatory element

Trans-regulatory elements are genes which may modify (or regulate) the expression of distant genes. More specifically, trans-regulatory elements are DNA sequences that encode transcription factors.

Trans-regulatory elements work through an intermolecular interaction between two different molecules and so are said to be "acting in trans". For example (1) a transcribed and translated transcription factor protein derived from the trans-regulatory element; and a (2) DNA regulatory element that is adjacent to the regulated gene. This is in contrast to cis-regulatory elements that work through an intramolecular interaction between different parts of the same molecule: (1) a gene; and (2) an adjacent regulatory element for that gene in the same DNA molecule.

Examples of trans-acting factors include the genes for:

 Subunits of RNA polymerase
 Proteins that bind to RNA polymerase to