Congratulations to the winners of the Editors’ Choice Awards for outstanding articles published in GENETICS in 2016! The journal’s Editorial Board considered a diverse range of articles, finding many papers worthy of recognition. After much deliberation, they settled on one exceptional article for each of the three award categories: quantitative genetics, molecular genetics, and population and evolutionary genetics. Check out some of the best GENETICS had to offer in 2016!

Left to right: Kresti Pecani, Frederick R. Cross

2016 EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD: MOLECULAR GENETICS

Degradation of the Mitotic Cyclin Clb3 Is not Required for Mitotic Exit but Is Necessary for G1 Cyclin Control of the Succeeding Cell Cycle

Kresti Pecani and Frederick R. Cross

GENETICS December 2016 204:1479–1494 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.194837

 

EDITORS’ NOTE In the textbook picture of cell cycle function, B-type cyclins must be degraded to allow the cell to exit mitosis. Pecani and Cross show that blocking degradation of yeast B-type cyclin Clb3 by removal of its destruction signal does not prevent mitotic exit. Instead, the cyclin’s persistence in new cells bypasses normal controls governing the start of the next cycle, including by cell size, pheromones, and G1 cyclins. The discovery that Clb3 destruction is not needed for mitotic exit has revealed a previously obscure role for mitotic cyclin degradation: blocking memory of the preceding cell cycle in newborn cells.

 

Left to right: Kelley Harris, Rasmus Nielsen

2016 EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD: POPULATION GENETICS

The Genetic Cost of Neanderthal Introgression

Kelley Harris and Rasmus Nielsen

GENETICS June 2016 203: 881-891 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.186890

 

EDITORS’ NOTE Compared to humans, Neanderthals were inbred. Harris and Nielsen use simulations to show that this inbreeding likely caused the accumulation of harmful mutations. They estimate that inbreeding may have led to Neanderthals having 40% lower fitness than humans. Some of these harmful mutations are predicted to persist in modern populations, although most have been eliminated by natural selection in humans since the time of interbreeding.

 

Left to right: Anna K. Greenwood, Margaret G. Mills, Abigail R. Wark, Sophie L. Archambeault, Catherine L. Peichel

2016 EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD: QUANTITATIVE GENETICS

Evolution of Schooling Behavior in Threespine Sticklebacks Is Shaped by the Eda Gene

Anna K. Greenwood, Margaret G. Mills, Abigail R. Wark, Sophie L. Archambeault, and Catherine L. Peichel
GENETICS June 2016 203: 677–681 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.188342

 

EDITORS’ NOTE Genes are known to play an important role in behavior, but there are few cases in which variation in a specific gene has been linked to a natural, ecologically relevant behavior—particularly in vertebrates. Greenwood et al. find that natural variation in schooling behavior between two populations of threespine sticklebacks is caused by the pleiotropic gene Ectodysplasin, which is also known to affect the development of body armor and the sensory organs that fish use to detect water movement. This is one of the first examples of a genetic change that underlies the evolution of vertebrate behavior in the wild.

 

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