Public release date: 30-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

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

Bethesda, MDApril 30, 2013 Listed below are the selected highlights for the May 2013 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, GENETICS. The May issue is available online at http://www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit GENETICS, Vol. 194, MAY 2013, Copyright 2013.

Please feel free to forward to colleagues who may be interested in these articles on a wide array of topics including: developmental and behavioral genetics; genome integrity and transmission; genetics of complex traits; cellular genetics; and population and evolutionary genetics.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

Developmental and Behavioral Genetics An organelle gatekeeper function for Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-16 (JIP3) at the axon initial segment, pp. 143-161 S. L. Edwards, S.-c. Yu, C. M. Hoover, B. C. Phillips, J. E. Richmond, and K. G. Miller Nerve cell bodies have a vastly different organelle composition than axons. This article (see accompanying commentary by Zheng and Nonet, pp. 35-37) provides insight into the basis of this difference. The authors report the discovery of a previously unrecognized organelle gatekeeper function, mediated by UNC-16 (JIP3 in humans), that acts at the axon initial segment to restrict the flow of Golgi and endosomal organelles into the synaptic region of axons.

Genome Integrity and Transmission Novel proteins required for meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA and siRNA generation in Neurospora crassa, pp. 91-100 T. M. Hammond, H. Xiao, E. C. Boone, L. M. Decker, S. A. Lee, T. D. Perdue, P. J. Pukkila, and P. K. Shiu and Identification of small RNAs associated with meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA, pp. 279-284 T. M. Hammond, W. G. Spollen, L. M. Decker, S. M. Blake, G. K. Springer, and P. K. Shiu Genes unpaired during meiosis are silenced in Neurospora by a mechanism known as meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA (MSUD). Two articles in this issue of GENETICS report the identification of novel players in this process, including small RNAs and the first nuclear MSUD protein. This protein is not required for meiosis, providing the first indication that MSUD is not necessarily coupled to sexual development.

Genome Integrity and Transmission Intragenomic conflict between the two major knob repeats of maize, pp. 81-89 L. B. Kanizay, P. S. Albert, J. A. Birchler, and R. K. Dawe Large genomes are often replete with tandem repeats. Why do they exist? Here the authors investigate the distribution of tandem repeats in maize heterochromatic domains called knobs. The data suggest an intragenomic conflict whereby one family of repeats suppresses proliferation of the other. Similar competition may underlie the formation and maintenance of many tandem repeat arrays.

Genome Integrity and Transmission Nonrandom distribution of interhomolog recombination events induced by breakage of a dicentric chromosome in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, pp. 69-80 W. Song, M. Gawel, M. Dominska, P. W. Greenwell, E. Hazkani-Covo, K. Bloom, and T. D. Petes This article presents the first high-resolution mapping of the positions of chromosome breaks that result from the bridge-fusion-breakage cycles of dicentric chromosomes. Sites of recombination between a dicentric chromosome and its normal homolog revealed the locations of breaks in the dicentric chromosome, which were distributed in a quasi-random fashion between the two centromeres.

Genetics of Complex Traits Systems genetics of environmental response in the mature wheat embryo, pp. 265-277 J. D. Munkvold, D. Laudencia-Chingcuanco, and M. E. Sorrells This article illustrates the utility of network approaches for understanding gene expression by environment interaction, even in organisms with highly complex genomes. A unique Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis approach was used to compare gene expression networks in mature wheat embryos from two distinct growing environments across a segregating population. This approach identified environmentally conserved and unique co-expression modules and their genetic control.

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Genetics Society of America's GENETICS journal highlights for May 2013

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