Articles tagged Genetics Journal
(305 results)

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three researchers for their mechanistic studies of DNA repair: Tomas Lindahl (Francis Crick Institute, UK) for discovery of base excision repair, which counteracts damage to DNA bases; Paul Modrich (HHMI and Duke University) for demonstrating mismatch repair, which occurs during DNA replication; and Aziz Sancar (University of North Carolina…

  Genetic analysis of an island population of mice reveals that 19 quantitative trait loci are responsible for their impressive size. Island populations of animals, isolated from their mainland relatives, have given us insight into evolution from the very birth of the field. In fact, studying finches on the Galápagos Islands helped Charles Darwin establish…

While the science behind the synthetic yeast genome project is cutting edge, the ethical questions surrounding it aren’t new. The scientists of the Sc2.0 project have a goal that sounds akin to science fiction – they’re working toward building a completely synthetic yeast genome. This new strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, affectionately named Sc2.0, will be…

Neurons actively shuttle membranous cargos called “organelles” along microtubule tracks using motor proteins that are essentially molecular engines. The motor proteins literally walk along the tracks, shouldering their cargos. Research published in two back-to-back papers in the September issue of GENETICS reveals a neuron-specific transmission system for regulating one of the motors. The microtubule tracks are…

A vast number of species depend on sexual reproduction for survival. Sex facilitates adaptation and rids populations of deleterious mutations. Despite the benefits of this process, sex can be remarkably costly and disrupt already advantageous genetic combinations. Only 20% of fungal species have been observed to reproduce sexually, and a long-standing mystery for researchers is…

The August issue of GENETICS is out now! Check out the Highlights below or the full Table of Contents here. ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Characterizing race/ethnicity and genetic ancestry for 100,000 subjects in the genetic epidemiology research on adult health and aging (GERA) cohort, pp. 1285–1295 Yambazi Banda, Mark N. Kvale, Thomas J. Hoffmann, Stephanie E. Hesselson, Dilrini Ranatunga, Hua Tang, Chiara Sabatti, Lisa…

Bdelloid rotifers have been veiled in mystery for decades. Despite extensive studies of this class of tiny freshwater invertebrates, no one has observed any trace of sex: no proven males, hermaphrodites, mating, or meiosis. Unlike other asexual organisms, which tend to be short-lived in evolutionary history, the apparently asexual bdelloid rotifers have managed to persist…

If not for a single-nucleotide mutation, each kernel on a juicy corn cob would be trapped inside an inedible casing as tough as a walnut shell. In the July issue of GENETICS, Wang et al. identify an amino acid substitution that was key to the development of the so-called “naked” kernels that characterize modern corn…

Allelic expression in the mouse genome is surprisingly unbalanced, according to new research published in the June issue of GENETICS. The factors that determine how a gene is expressed in a given cell are complex. After all, every mammalian cell contains two copies of each gene, and both versions of that gene, called alleles, play…

The July issue of GENETICS is out now! Check out the Highlights below of the full Table of Contents here. And don’t miss the essays by winners of 2015 GSA Honors and Awards!   ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Fine mapping causal variants with an approximate Bayesian method using marginal test statistics, pp. 719–736 Wenan Chen, Beth R.…

In time for the 20th International C. elegans Meeting, GENETICS has published the next in its series of model organism education Primers. Ann Corsi, Bruce Wightman, and Marty Chalfie introduce Caenorhabditis elegans and the many features that make it an outstanding experimental system. The authors describe the basic biology, genetics, anatomy, genomics, ecology, and evolution…