Congratulations to the winners of the Editors’ Choice Awards for outstanding articles published in GENETICS in 2020! 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: molecular genetics, population and evolutionary genetics, and quantitative genetics. Check out some of the best GENETICS had to offer in 2020, and be sure to browse the full Spotlight collection.
EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD IN POPULATION AND EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS
Zachary L. Fuller, Spencer A. Koury, Christopher J. Leonard, Randee E. Young, Kobe Ikegami, Jonathan Westlake, Stephen Richards, Stephen W. Schaeffer, and Nitin Phadnis
GENETICS Sep 2020 216: 205-226
The Drosophila pseudoobscura Sex-Ratio (SR) chromosome was one of the first-discovered segregation distorter chromosomes. Despite being a historically significant and well-studied system, the mechanisms allowing for the long-term association of the SR chromosome with multiple nonoverlapping inversions remain unclear. Fuller, Koury et al. perform a comparative study of SR and uninverted standard X- chromosomes in D. pseudoobscura to study the evolutionary history and dynamics of SR chromosomes. Combining the genomics analysis, direct recombination experiments, and population genetic modelling, they demonstrate that SR chromosomes are maintained through a combination of suppressed recombination and epistatic selection.
EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD IN MOLECULAR GENETICS
Mark Hintze, Sneha L. Koneru, Sophie P. R. Gilbert, Dimitris Katsanos, Julien Lambert and Michalis Barkoulas
GENETICS Apr 2020, 214: 927-939
Developmental phenotypes are often consistent across individuals within a population in the face of environmental and genetic challenges. However, these challenges can exceed the level of system robustness and change developmental outcomes. Hintze et al. use a set of epidermal stem cells in Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate cell fate patterning in response to changes in temperature and genetic background. They find that asymmetric cell divisions shift to symmetric upon temperature increase through changes in the Wnt asymmetry pathway activation. Furthermore, different genetic backgrounds show varying degrees of sensitivity to cell fate errors upon temperature increase.
EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD IN QUANTITATIVE GENETICS
Alice H. MacQueen, Jeffrey W. White, Rian Lee, Juan M. Osorno, Jeremy Schmutz, Phillip N. Miklas, Jim Myers, Phillip E. McClean and Thomas E. Juenger
GENETICS May 2020 215: 267-284
The Cooperative Dry Bean Nursery has produced a multi-environment phenotype dataset with thousands of phenotypic datapoints measured over many decades. To study stable genetic effects in this dataset, MacQueen et al. conducted a genome-wide association using best linear unbiased predictions derived across years and locations for 21 phenotypes, using genotypic data (1.2M SNPs) for 327 genotypes. They find significant effects for all phenotypes, two genomic regions with significant effects on many phenotypes, and multiple genomic regions previously identified in other genome-wide association work in common bean. Their results demonstrate that multi-environment datasets not designed for genetic work can nonetheless support genetic discovery.
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Hongyu Zhao joins GENETICS as new Senior Editor
A new senior editor is joining GENETICS in the Statistical Genetics and Genomics section. We’re excited to welcome Hongyu Zhao to the editorial team. Hongyu ZhaoSenior Editor Hongyu Zhao is the Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics, Professor of Genetics, and Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. He received his BS in…
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GSA Member Julio Molina Pineda Receives DeLill Nasser Award, Shines at TAGC 2024
“At any career stage, the GSA membership is an amazing investment for any genetics professional!” Julio Molina Pineda is a PhD Candidate in Cell and Molecular Biology and a Research Assistant at the University of Arkansas, and a Doctoral Academy Fellow at the Lewis Lab. In 2023, Julio was awarded the DeLill Nasser Award for…
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In Memoriam: Ellsworth Herman Grell (1932–2023), a pioneer of Drosophila genome engineering and annotation
Ellsworth (Ed) Grell blessed the Drosophila community through three enduring legacies: as a pioneer of chromosome mechanics, as a primary organizer and synthesizer of genetic knowledge in Drosophila, and as a graceful mentor to those fortunate to have known him personally. Ed grew up in rural Nebraska, completed his undergraduate studies at Iowa State, and…
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Poster presentation tips for TAGC 2024
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Maximize your TAGC 2024 experience
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Early Career Leadership Spotlight: Sarah Petrosky
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TAGC 2024 Early Career Award Winners
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Preeminent geneticists recognized with revamped GSA Awards
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Fly Board funds outreach programs to spread the word about Drosophila research
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New members of the GSA Board of Directors: 2024–2026
We are pleased to announce the election of four new leaders to the GSA Board of Directors: 2024 Vice President/2025 President Brenda Andrews Professor, University of Toronto It’s an honor to continue my association with the Society by serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors. I have broad knowledge of the ongoing activities…