Public release date: 7-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

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

Bethesda, MDNovember 7, 2012 Listed below are the selected highlights for the November 2012 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, GENETICS. The November issue is available online at http://www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit GENETICS, Vol. 192, November 2012, Copyright 2012.

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

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

An ex vivo model for imprinting: Mutually exclusive binding of Cdx2 and Oct4 as a switch for imprinted and random X-inactivation, pp. 857 Jennifer A. Erwin, Brian del Rosario, Bernhard Payer, and Jeannie T. Lee X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is initially seen only on the parental X chromosome during embryogenesis. This imprinted XCI later becomes random, occurring on either the maternal or paternal X. This article describes a cell culture model for imprinting, discovery of a protein required for imprinted XCI, and the roles of two transcription factors in the switch between imprinted and random XCI in the early mouse embryo.

Small- and large-effect quantitative trait locus interactions underlie variation in yeast sporulation efficiency, pp. 1123 Kim Lorenz and Barak A. Cohen Sporulation efficiency in yeast is a complex trait controlled by alleles of both large and small effect. These investigators report that small-effect alleles differ depending on which large-effect alleles are present in the background, suggesting there are strong interactions between large- and small-effect alleles. Curiously, each large-effect allele had a nearby small effect allele, suggesting that variable alleles for a trait may cluster together in the genome.

Ancient admixture in human history, pp. 1065 Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Yontao Luo, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland, Yiping Zhan, Teri Genschoreck, Teresa Webster, and David Reich This article presents a suite of methods for learning about the history of genetic population mixtures. Application of the methods yielded the striking finding of a clear signal of admixture into northern Europe that likely reflects a history of admixture between Neolithic migrants and the indigenous Mesolithic population of Europe, consistent with recent analyses of ancient bones from Sweden and the genome sequence of the Tyrolean "Iceman".

Elucidating molecular networks that either affect or respond to plasma cortisol concentration in target tissues of liver and muscle, pp. 1109 Siriluck Ponsuksili, Yang Du, Eduard Murani, Manfred Schwerin, and Klaus Wimmers Cortisol has physiological implications for neurobiological, immune, and metabolic processes. This study addresses the genetics of variation in cortisol concentrations by integrating global gene expression and genome-wide association analyses of the level of expression quantitative trait loci detection with causality modeling. The study revealed genes that affect or respond to cortisol levels that are thus of interest in stress biology and animal breeding.

Pathways of genetic adaptation: Multistep origin of mutants under selection without induced mutagenesis in Salmonella enterica, pp. 987 Semarhy Quiones-Soto, Andrew B. Reams, and John R. Roth Bacterial populations plated on growth-limiting medium give rise to well-adapted mutant colonies that accumulate above a lawn of nongrowing cells. This has been attributed to stress-induced mutagenesis of nongrowing cells, but this article presents evidence that this behavior can result from pre-existing small-effect mutations that enable growth and adaptation under selection, with no change in mutation rate.

Go here to see the original:
Genetics Society of America's GENETICS journal highlights for November 2012

Comments are closed.