Newswise — Bethesda, MD—April 1, 2013 – Listed below are the selected highlights for the April 2013 issue of the Genetics Society of America’s journal, GENETICS. The April issue is available online at www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit GENETICS, Vol. 193, April 2013, Copyright © 2013.
Please feel free to forward to colleagues who may be interested in these articles on a wide array of topics including methods, technology and resources; gene expression; genetics of complex traits; genome integrity and transmission; population and evolutionary genetics; cellular genetics; and, genome system biology.
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTSMethods, Technology and Resources1. Marker density and read depth for genotyping populations using genotyping-by-sequencing, pp. 1073–1081Timothy M. Beissinger, Candice N. Hirsch, Rajandeep S. Sekhon, Jillian M. Foerster, James M. Johnson, German Muttoni, Brieanne Vaillancourt, C. Robin Buell, Shawn M. Kaeppler, and Natalia de Leon Genotyping-by-sequencing enables rapid and efficient geno¬typing of any species, but it must be appropriately implemented to provide the desired information. This article describes what constitutes sufficient marker information for a variety of genetic studies, and tells how best to obtain that information with genotyping-by-sequencing.Gene Expression2. Novel sexual-cycle-specific gene silencing in Aspergillus nidulans, pp. 1149–1162Wioletta Czaja, Karen Y. Miller, and Bruce L. MillerHomology-dependent gene silencing operates in many fungi, plants, and animals. This article reports a novel gene silencing system in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans that is sexual-cycle-specific. Duplication of the matA gene encoding a master regulator of sexual differentiation triggers Mat-induced silencing of mating type function and aborts gametogenesis. Mat-induced silencing offers a valuable insight into genome surveillance in eukaryotes. Genetics of Complex Traits3. The protein chaperone HSP90 can facilitate the divergence of gene duplicates, pp. 1269–1277Jennifer Lachowiec, Tzitziki Lemus, James H. Thomas, Patrick J. M. Murphy, Jennifer L. Nemhauser, and Christine QueitschBecause protein chaperones facilitate folding and stability of their client proteins, clients may be free to accumulate more mutations than nonclients experiencing similar evolutionary pressures. These investigators found that a plant HSP90 client protein shows relaxed selection and hallmarks of neo- and subfunctionalization compared to its nonclient paralog. In addition, they show that systematically identified yeast HSP90 clients also tend to evolve faster than their nonclient paralogs.
Genome Integrity and Transmission4. Limited RNA editing in exons of mouse liver and adipose, pp. 1107–1115Sandrine Lagarrigue, Farhad Hormozdiari, Lisa J. Martin, Frédéric Lecerf, Yehudit Hasin, Christoph Rau, Raffi Hagopian, Yu Xiao, Jun Yan, Thomas A. Drake, Anatole Ghazalpour, Eleazar Eskin, and Aldons J. LusisHow prevalent is RNA editing? Several recent studies of RNA editing of exons in humans and mice reached very different conclusions. This article should quiet the controversy. Employing stringent criteria, the authors identified only 63 examples of editing in liver and 188 in adipose tissue of mice. Their results suggest that exonic RNA editing in these tissues is limited to perhaps a few hundred events.Population and Evolutionary Genetics5. Inferring admixture histories of human populations using linkage disequilibrium, pp. 1233–1254Po-Ru Loh, Mark Lipson, Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Joseph K. Pickrell, David Reich, and Bonnie BergerAdmixture between previously separated populations shapes patterns of genetic diversity. These investigators present new methods for analyzing data from admixed populations and show how statistics based on linkage disequilibrium can be used to construct a robust test for admixture and to infer admixture-related parameters such as dates, mixture proportions, and phylogenetic relationships. These tools are offered in a fast and flexible software package—ALDER—and applied to human data, yielding new insights into the admixture history of Sardinians, Pygmies, and Japanese.
Population and Evolutionary Genetics6. Correcting coalescent analyses for panel-based SNP ascertainment, pp. 1185–1196James R. McGill, Elizabeth A. Walkup, and Mary K. KuhnerSNP chips only detect previously identified variants. Analyzing them as if they are fully ascertained leads to biased estimates of population size and other parameters; culling low-frequency SNPs makes the bias worse. This article offers corrections allowing accurate estimation of population parameters from panel-based and frequency-culled SNPs, and recommends strategies for SNP-based data collection and analysis.
Cellular Genetics7. Nonself recognition through intermolecular disulfide bond formation of ribonucleotide reductase in Neurospora, pp. 1175–1183Robert P. Smith, Kenji Wellman, Leila Haidari, Hirohisa Masuda, and Myron L. SmithIn addition to its task of manufacturing DNA nucleotides, ribonucleotide reductase has a surprising function in Neurospora crassa: nonself recognition. These investigators discovered that the flexible tail of the enzyme irreversibly crosslinks two alternative forms of the enzyme via an unusual disulfide bond. Their observation that different versions of this tail inhibit the growth of cells that carry the other allelic form offers the possibility of developing specific chemotherapeutic drugs using this system as a prototype. Genome and Systems Biology8. The draft genome and transcriptome of Panagrellus redivivus are shaped by the harsh demands of a free-living lifestyle, pp. 1279–1295Jagan Srinivasan, Adler R. Dillman, Marissa G. Macchietto, Liisa Heikkinen, Merja Lakso, Kelley M. Fracchia, Igor Antoshechkin, Ali Mortazavi, Garry Wong, and Paul W. SternbergThis article presents analysis of the draft genome sequence of a free-living nematode. It reveals striking protein family expansions that likely result from selection in a harsh environment with pathogens. For example, expansion of a eukaryotic release factor protein family suggests an ongoing evolutionary arms race with viruses and transposons. The authors describe a resource that will enable experimental analysis of interesting developmental and behavioral features of this worm, such as its gonad development and use of ascaroside social signals.
ABOUT GENETICS: Since 1916, GENETICS (http://www.genetics.org/) has covered high quality, original research on a range of topics bearing on inheritance, including population and evolutionary genetics, complex traits, developmental and behavioral genetics, cellular genetics, gene expression, genome integrity and transmission, and genome and systems biology. GENETICS, a peer-reviewed, peer-edited journal of the Genetics Society of America is one of the world's most cited journals in genetics and heredity.
ABOUT GSA: Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers, educators, bioengineers, bioinformaticians and others interested in the field of genetics. Its nearly 5,000 members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level. GSA is dedicated to promoting research in genetics and to facilitating communication among geneticists worldwide through its conferences, including the biennial conference on Model Organisms to Human Biology, an interdisciplinary meeting on current and cutting edge topics in genetics research, as well as annual and biennial meetings that focus on the genetics of particular organisms, including C. elegans, Drosophila, fungi, mice, yeast, and zebrafish. GSA publishes GENETICS, a leading journal in the field and an online, open-access journal, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. For more information about GSA, please visit www.genetics-gsa.org. Also follow GSA on Facebook at facebook.com/GeneticsGSA and on Twitter @GeneticsGSA.
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