Science & Publishing

Complex multicellular organisms have mastered the art of specialization; embryonic stem cells give rise to a multitude of different cell types that perform specific functions. Later, adult stem cells dedicated to specific tissues maintain and repair many organs in the body throughout life. Some specialized cell types, like skin, blood, lining of the intestine and…

Meiotic recombination in a commonly used laboratory mouse strain showed sensitivity to dietary changes. Recombination within the germline is a tightly controlled process. But new research suggests that nutrition may introduce some variability into this crucial step in genetic transmission, which could have implications for the design of future genetics studies. A study published in…

Howard Lipshitz reflects on his first year as Editor in Chief at GENETICS.

GENETICS is pleased to announce five new Associate Editors have joined the Editorial Board. Cellular Genetics Mike Boxem Utrecht University Mike Boxem studies the polarization and organization of epithelial cells using C. elegans as an animal model. He received his training in genetics and developmental biology as a PhD student, working on the control of cell division…

Guest post by Charles H. Langley. Dic, hospes, doctis caelebs animalculum obisse hicque iacere physis legibus conveniens. (Stranger, tell the learned that the celibate little animal has passed away, and lies here, conforming to the laws of nature.) —John Rundin, with apologies to Simonides and Cicero Thirty-five years ago, in a celebrated News & Views…

Scientists generated a karyotype, chromosome-scale genome assembly, and manual genome annotation for a common ctenophore. Ctenophores—beautiful marine invertebrates also known as “comb jellies”—have long fascinated and perplexed biologists. Phylogeneticists believe that either ctenophores or sponges were the first organisms to branch off from the tree of life, making them the “sister clade” to all other…

Efforts to diversify an inbred population must take into account the genetic backgrounds of the founders. A female kākāpō named Rimu, whose parents are both Stewart Island founders.Photo by Jake Osborne. The nocturnal flightless parrot known as the kākāpō was once abundant throughout New Zealand. But after the introduction of mammalian predators, the species all…

Researchers used a forward genetic approach to identify genes that affect a social behavior in honey bees. For more than 30 years, honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page, Jr. and his colleagues have sought the genes that influence a colony trait that only emerges from interactions between thousands of individual bees — a social phenotype.…

Researchers identified dozens of quantitative trait loci controlling important traits in Cannabis sativa. In 2014, United States federal law changed to allow scientific research on Cannabis sativa in states with regulated hemp programs. This legal shift opened the door to research that had previously been slow and difficult due to regulatory hurdles and funding challenges. A new study published…

Yeast screens explore the therapeutic potential of chemical rescue. Anyone who’s worked in a lab knows that sinking feeling of discovering that the temperature of an incubator, carefully set the night before, has crept up high enough to ruin the experiment. While such a mishap usually spells disaster, occasionally, it can lead to an unexpected…

Discovery of thiabendazole target explains vascular disrupting action. Even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, some yeast genes persist mostly intact in humans and other vertebrates. Despite the huge differences between yeast and humans, these genes perform the same molecular function in both organisms but have been adapted over time into new contexts.…