Public release date: 9-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Phyllis Edelman pedelman@genetics-gsa.org 301-634-7302 Genetics Society of America

Bethesda, MDAugust 9, 2012 Listed below are the selected highlights for the August 2012 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, GENETICS. The August issue is available online at http://www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit GENETICS, Vol. 191, AUGUST 2012, Copyright 2012.

Please feel free to forward to colleagues who may be interested in these articles.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

New negative feedback regulators of Egfr signaling in Drosophila, pp. 1213 Jonathan P. Butchar, Donna Cain, Sathiya N. Manivannan, Andrea D. McCue, Liana Bonanno, Sarah Halula, Sharon Truesdell, Christina L. Austin, Thomas L. Jacobsen, and Amanda Simcox While much is known about the checks and balances necessary for the precise specification of fly wings, these authors show that we didn't know it all. They report the discovery of two new negative regulators in the Egfr pathway that are conserved in other animals. Because a perfect wing is of critical importance to flies, it is likely that more such controls will be discovered.

On the prospects of whole-genome association mapping in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, pp. 1345 Caitlin F. Connelly and Joshua M. Akey Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have not caught on for model organisms. One challenge is population structure, which can result in spurious associations. This article shows that indeed, GWA studies in yeast are complicated by complex patterns of population structure that are not easily corrected by existing approaches. The authors expound on how careful study design and empirical tests of the effects of population structure will be necessary for carrying out GWA studies in model organisms.

Suppressors, screens, and genes: An educational primer for use with "A network of genes antagonistic to the LIN-35 retinoblastoma protein of Caenorhabditis elegans", pp. 1031-1035 Elizabeth A. De Stasio This is the first of a new series of articles in GENETICS Educational Primers designed to guide educators in the use of current scientific literature in the classroom (see editorial in this issue). In this Primer, Elizabeth De Stasio explains how Polley and Fay used RNA interference, suppressor screens, and synthetic phenotypes to elucidate the function of the retinoblastoma protein in C. elegans (see article in this issue). Each Primer provides necessary background for students and offers a sample approach to classroom use of the original article, including discussion questions.

A resolution of the mutation load paradox in humans, pp. 1321 Yann Lesecque, Peter D. Keightley, and Adam Eyre-Walker It has been estimated that each of us receives, on average, at least two new harmful mutations from our parents. Previous theoretical work suggested that this high rate of harmful mutation should result in 88% of individuals failing to have offspring, and each female having to have more than 16 offspring on average, to maintain population size. Fortunately, those calculations are incorrect, as these authors show. They show that humans could tolerate hundreds of new harmful mutations if natural selection acts via competition between individuals.

SNP-ratio mapping (SRM): Identifying lethal alleles and mutations in complex genetic backgrounds by next-generation sequencing, pp. 1381 Heike Lindner, Michael T. Raissig, Christian Sailer, Hiroko Shimosato-Asano, Rmy Bruggmann, and Ueli Grossniklaus Mutations in essential genes are difficult to identify. Here the authors present a method for quick identification of homozygous-lethal alleles by next-generation sequencing. The authors' method, which can also be used to map second-site modifiers in complex genetic/transgenic backgrounds, can be applied to any genetic organism.

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Genetics Society of Americas GENETICS journal highlights for August 2012

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