Genetics back issues from February 2007:
The 2007 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal: Oliver Smithies
Feb 01, 2007; ... IT is a great pleasure to recognize Oliver Smithies on his receipt of the 2007 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal. To us, there is no person who ismore deserving of this lifetime honor. Throughout his career, Oliver has mademajor contributions to the advancement of genetics and is a very distinguished and ...
The 2007 George W. Beadle Medal: Robert K. Herman
Feb 01, 2007; ... THE Genetics Society of America has awarded the 2007 George W. Beadle Medal to Robert K. Herman for his outstanding contributions to the genetics research community. Indeed, for those of us who grew up working with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Bob Herman is a hero. For nearly 3 decades ...
The 2007 Genetics Society of America Medal: Shirley Tilghman
Feb 01, 2007; ... THE recipient of the 2007 Genetics Society of America Medal is Shirley Tilghman. Shirley has made major scientific contributions to our understanding of gene expression and the epigenetic phenomenon of imprinting, but she has also been a national leader on matters of science policy and ...
The 2007 Genetics Society of America Award for Excellence in Education: Elizabeth Jones
Feb 01, 2007; ... UPON recommendation of the Education Committee, the Genetics Society of America Board of Directors has approved a new award for excellence in education. The award recognizes individuals or groups who have had a significant, sustained impact on genetics education at any level, from K-12 through ...
R. A. Fisher's 1943 Unravelling of the Rhesus Blood-Group System
Feb 01, 2007; ... EVEN if R. A. Fisher's elucidation of the human blood-group system Rhesus in terms of the three linked loci C, D, and E had not proved to be substantially correct, it would still have been an outstanding example of the power of analytical thought to unravel a complex array of genetical data. In ...
Finely Orchestrated Movements: Evolution of the Ribosomal RNA Genes
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Evolution of the tandemly repeated ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes is intriguing because in each species all units within the array are highly uniform in sequence but that sequence differs between species. In this review we summarize the origins of the current models to explain this ...
Homeologous Recombination Plays a Major Role in Chromosome Rearrangements That Occur During Meiosis of Brassica napus Haploids
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Chromosomal rearrangements can be triggered by recombination between distinct but related regions. Brassica napus (AACC; 2n = 38) is a recent allopolyploid species whose progenitor genomes are widely replicated. In this article, we analyze the extent to which chromosomal ...
An Analysis of Univalent Segregation in Meiotic Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana: A Possible Role for Synaptonemal Complex
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT During first meiotic prophase, homologous chromosomes are normally kept together by both crossovers and synaptonemal complexes (SC). In most eukaryotes, the SC disassembles at diplotene, leaving chromosomes joined by chiasmata. The correct co-orientation of bivalents at ...
The Overexpression of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae Centromeric Histone H3 Variant Mutant Protein Leads to a Defect in Kinetochore Biorientation
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Chromosomes segregate using their kinetochores, the specialized protein structures that are assembled on centromeric DNA and mediate attachment to the mitotic spindle. Because centromeric sequences are not conserved, centromere identity is propagated by an epigenetic mechanism ....
Functional Deficiency in IL-7 Caused by an N-Ethyl-N-nitrosourea-Induced Point Mutation
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-induced mutagenesis provides a powerful approach for identifying genes involved in immune regulation and diseases. Here we describe a new mutant strain, HLB368, with hereditary leukopenia. At necropsy, the mutant mice had very small thymuses and ...
Recurrent Locus-Specific Mutation Resulting From a Cryptic Ectopic Insertion in Neurospora
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT New mutations are found among ~20% of progeny when one or both parents carry eas allele UCLA191 (eas^sup UCLA^, easily wettable, hydrophobin-deficient, linkage group II). The mutations inactivate the wild-type allele of cya-8 (cytochrome aa^sub 3^ deficient, linkage group VII), ...
Sap1 Promotes the Association of the Replication Fork Protection Complex With Chromatin and Is Involved in the Replication Checkpoint in Schizosaccharomyces pombe
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Sap1 is involved in replication fork pausing at rDNA repeats and functions during mating-type switching in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. These two roles are dependent on the ability of Sap1 to bind specific DNA sequences at the rDNA and mating-type loci, respectively. In S. pombe, ...
Onset of the DNA Replication Checkpoint in the Early Drosophila Embryo
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The Drosophila embryo is a promising model for isolating gene products that coordinate S phase and mitosis. We have reported before that increasing maternal Cyclin B dosage to up to six copies (six cycB) increases Cdk1-Cyclin B (CycB) levels and activity in the embryo, delays ...
Histone H3 Lysine 36 Methylation Antagonizes Silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Independently of the Rpd3S Histone Deacetylase Complex
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT In yeast, methylation of histone H3 on lysine 36 (H3-K36) is catalyzed by the NSD1 leukemia oncoprotein homolog Set2. The histone deacetylase complex Rpd3S is recruited to chromatin via binding of the chromodomain protein Eaf3 to methylated H3-K36 to prevent erroneous ...
The SU(VAR)3-9/HP1 Complex Differentially Regulates the Compaction State and Degree of Underreplication of X Chromosome Pericentric Heterochromatin in Drosophila melanogaster
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT In polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster, regions of pericentric heterochromatin coalesce to form a compact chromocenter and are highly underreplicated. Focusing on study of X chromosome heterochromatin, we demonstrate that loss of either SU(VAR)3-9 histone ...
Drosophila melanogaster Male Somatic Cells Feminized Solely by Tra^sup F^ Can Collaborate With Female Germ Cells to Make Functional Eggs
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Female differentiation of Drosophila germ cells is induced by cell-nonautonomous signals generated in the gonadal soma that work with germ-cell-autonomous signals determined by germ-cell X chromosome dose. Generation of the nonautonomous feminizing signals was known to involve ...
Cytogenetic and Molecular Characterization of Heterochromatin Gene Models in Drosophila melanogaster
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT In the past decade, genome-sequencing projects have yielded a great amount of information on DNA sequences in several organisms. The release of the Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatin sequence by the Drosophila Heterochromatin Genome Project (DHGP) has greatly facilitated ...
Genes Affecting Cell Competition in Drosophila
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Cell competition is a homeostatic mechanism that regulates the size attained by growing tissues. We performed an unbiased genetic screen for mutations that permit the survival of cells being competed due to haplo-insufficiency for RpL36. Mutations that protect RpL36 heterozygous ...
Antagonizing Scalloped With a Novel Vestigial Construct Reveals an Important Role for Scalloped in Drosophila melanogaster Leg, Eye and Optic Lobe Development
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Scalloped (SD), a TEA/ATTS-domain-containing protein, is required for the proper development of Drosophila melanogaster. Despite being expressed in a variety of tissues, most of the work on SD has been restricted to understanding its role and function in patterning the adult ...
Mos1 Mutagenesis Reveals a Diversity of Mechanisms Affecting Response of Caenorhabditis elegans to the Bacterial Pathogen Microbacterium nematophilum
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT A specific host-pathogen interaction exists between Caenorhabditis elegans and the gram-positive bacterium Microbacterium nematophilum. This bacterium is able to colonize the rectum of susceptible worms and induces a defensive tail-swelling response in the host. Previous mutant ...
Importance of the Hsp70 ATPase Domain in Yeast Prion Propagation
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The Saccharomyces cerevisiae non-Mendelian genetic element [PSI^sup +^] is the prion form of the translation termination factor Sup35p. The ability of [PSI^sup +^] to propagate efficiently has been shown previously to depend upon the action of protein chaperones. In this article ...
Genes Required for Osmoregulation and Apical Secretion in Caenorhabditis elegans
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Few studies have investigated whether or not there is an interdependence between osmoregulation and vesicular trafficking. We previously showed that in Caenorhabditis elegans che-14 mutations affect osmoregulation, cuticle secretion, and sensory organ development. We report the ...
Mutation of a Ubiquitously Expressed Mouse Transmembrane Protein (Tapt1) Causes Specific Skeletal Homeotic Transformations
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT L5Jcs1 is a perinatal lethal mutation uncovered in a screen for ENU-induced mutations on mouse chromosome 5. L5Jcs1 homozygotes exhibit posterior-to-anterior transformations of the vertebral column midsection, similar to mice deficient for Hoxc8 and Hoxc9. Positional cloning ...
Controlling the False-Positive Rate in Multilocus Genome Scans for Selection
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Rapid typing of genetic variation at many regions of the genome is an efficient way to survey variability in natural populations in an effort to identify segments of the genome that have experienced recent natural selection. Following such a genome scan, individual regions may ...
Ecological Zones Rather Than Molecular Forms Predict Genetic Differentiation in the Malaria Vector Anopheles gambiae s.s. in Ghana
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae s.s. is rapidly becoming a model for studies on the evolution of reproductive isolation. Debate has centered on the taxonomic status of two forms (denoted M and S) within the nominal taxon identified by point mutations in the X-linked rDNA ...
Simulations Provide Support for the Common Disease-Common Variant Hypothesis
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The success of mapping genes involved in complex diseases, using association or linkage disequilibrium methods, depends heavily on the number and frequency of susceptibility alleles of these genes. These methods will be economically and statistically feasible if common diseases ...
An Ectopic Expression Screen Reveals the Protective and Toxic Effects of Drosophila Seminal Fluid Proteins
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT In Drosophila melanogaster, seminal fluid regulates the reproductive and immune responses of mated females. Some seminal fluid proteins may provide protective functions to mated females, such as antimicrobial activity and/or stimulation of antimicrobial gene expression levels, ...
Hybrid Mitochondrial Plasmids From Senescence Suppressor Isolates of Neurospora intermedia
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT We analyzed several natural suppressor isolates of the pKalilo-based fungal senescence syndrome of Neurospora intermedia. The pKalilo plasmid did not increase in titer in these isolates. Nor did it show integration "de novo." In at least two of the senescence suppressor ...
Type IV Procollagen Missense Mutations Associated With Defects of the Eye, Vascular Stability, the Brain, Kidney Function and Embryonic or Postnatal Viability in the Mouse, Mus musculus: An Extension of the Col4a1 Allelic Series and the Identification of the First Two Col4a2 Mutant Alleles
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The basement membrane is important for proper tissue development, stability, and physiology. Major components of the basement membrane include laminins and type IV collagens. The type IV procollagens Col4a1 and Col4a2 form the heterotrimer [α1(IV)]^sub 2^[α2(IV)], ...
Combining Sperm Typing and Linkage Disequilibrium Analyses Reveals Differences in Selective Pressures or Recombination Rates Across Human Populations
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT A previous polymorphism survey of the type 2 diabetes gene CAPN10 identified a segment showing an excess of polymorphism levels in all population samples, coinciding with localized breakdown of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in a sample of Hausa from Cameroon, but not in ...
Effects of Introgression and Recombination on Haplotype Structure and Linkage Disequilibrium Surrounding a Locus Encoding Bymovirus Resistance in Barley
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT We present a detailed analysis of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the physical and genetic context of the barley gene Hv-eIF4E, which confers resistance to the barley yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) complex. Eightythree SNPs distributed over 132 kb of Hv-eIF4E and six additional ...
Mapping Temporally Varying Quantitative Trait Loci in Time-to-Failure Experiments
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Existing methods for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) in time-to-failure experiments assume that the QTL effect is constant over the course of the study. This assumption may be violated when the gene(s) underlying the QTL are up- or downregulated on a biologically ...
Maximum-Likelihood Estimation of Allelic Dropout and False Allele Error Rates From Microsatellite Genotypes in the Absence of Reference Data
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The importance of quantifying and accounting for stochastic genotyping errors when analyzing microsatellite data is increasingly being recognized. This awareness is motivating the development of data analysis methods that not only take errors into consideration but also ...
A Mixed-Model Approach to Association Mapping Using Pedigree Information With an Illustration of Resistance to Phytophthora infestans in Potato
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Association or linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based mapping strategies are receiving increased attention for the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in plants as an alternative to more traditional, purely linkage-based approaches. An attractive property of association ...
Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Evolution in Chlamydomonas
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The mitochondrial genomes of the Chlorophyta exhibit significant diversity with respect to gene content and genome compactness; however, quantitative data on the rates of nucleotide substitution in mitochondrial DNA, which might help explain the origin of this diversity, are ...
G72/G30 Genes and Schizophrenia: A Systematic Meta-analysis of Association Studies
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Schizophrenia may result from a neurotransmission hypofunction of glutamatergic and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Linkage disequilibrium mapping has identified several promising and novel positional candidates, including the G72/G30 and D-amino-acid oxidase (DAAO) ...
Mutations in SLC45A2 Cause Plumage Color Variation in Chicken and Japanese Quail
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT S*S (Silver), S*N (wild type/gold), and S*AL (sex-linked imperfect albinism) form a series of alleles at the S (Silver) locus on chicken (Gallus gallus) chromosome Z. Similarly, sex-linked imperfect albinism (AL*A) is the bottom recessive allele at the orthologous AL locus in ...
Development of a Near-Isogenic Line Population of Arabidopsis thaliana and Comparison of Mapping Power With a Recombinant Inbred Line Population
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT In Arabidopsis recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations are widely used for quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses. However, mapping analyses with this type of population can be limited because of the masking effects of major QTL and epistatic interactions of multiple QTL. An ...
The Effect of Genetic Variation of the Retinoic Acid Receptor-Related Orphan Receptor C Gene on Fatness in Cattle
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Genotypes at the retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor C (RORC) gene were associated with fatness in 1750 cattle. Ten SNPs were genotyped in RORC and the adjacent gene leucine-rich repeat neuronal 6D (LRRN6D) to map the QTL, 7 of which are in a 4.2-kb sequence around ...
A Microsatellite Linkage Map of Barramundi, Lates calcarifer
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) is an important farmed marine food fish species. Its compact genome (~700 Mb) is among the smallest genomes of food fish species. We established a first-generation genetic linkage map of Barramundi with a mapping panel containing three parents (two ...
Functional Analysis of Gene Duplications in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Gene duplication can occur on two scales: whole-genome duplications (WGD) and smaller-scale duplications (SSD) involving individual genes or genomic segments. Duplication may result in functionally redundant genes or diverge in function through neofunctionalization or ...
A New Strategy for Estimating Recombination Fractions Between Dominant Markers From an F^sub 2^ Population
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Although most high-density linkage maps have been constructed from codominant markers such as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and microsatellites due to their high linkage information, dominant markers can be expected to be even more significant as proteomic technique ...
Linkage Maps for the Pacific Abalone (Genus Haliotis) Based on Microsatellite DNA Markers
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT This study presents linkage maps for the Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) based on 180 microsatellite DNA markers. Linkage mapping was performed using three F^sub 1^ outbred families, and a composite linkage map for each sex was generated by incorporating map information ...
Two Events Are Responsible for an Insertion in a Paternally Inherited Mitochondrial Genome of the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Frequent nonhomologous recombination has been previously postulated to explain the 1045-bp insertion in one mitochondrial sperm-transmitted haplotype of Mytilus galloprovincialis. Such recombination would lead to the disruption of gene order and so the existence of a specific ...
Xlf1 Is Required for DNA Repair by Nonhomologous End Joining in Schizosaccharomyces pombe
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks is essential for cell survival and maintenance of genome integrity. Here we describe xlf1^sup +^, a gene in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe that is required for repair of double-strand breaks by nonhomologous end ...
Neither Maternal nor Zygotic med-1/med-2 Genes Play a Major Role in Specifying the Caenorhabditis elegans Endoderm
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT The med-1 and med-2 genes encode small, highly similar proteins related to GATA-type transcription factors and have been proposed as necessary for specification of both the mesoderm and the endoderm of Caenorhabditis elegans. However, we have previously presented evidence that ...
Functional Roles for [beta]1,4-N-Acetlygalactosaminyltransferase-A in Drosophila Larval Neurons and Muscles
Feb 01, 2007; ... ABSTRACT Adult Drosophila mutant for the glycosyltransferase β1,4-N-acetlygalactosaminyltransferase-A (β4GalNAcTA) display an abnormal locomotion phenotype, indicating a role for this enzyme, and the glycan structures that it generates, in the neuromuscular system. To ...