One year after the two human draft genome sequences were published the debate over sequencing strategies continues.

The IE86 protein of human cytomegalovirus is an 'immediate early' viral protein that drives cells into S phase, but blocks cell division. In the March 5 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Yoon-Jae Song and Mark Stinski describe a microarray analysis of the effects of IE86 expression on the human transcriptome (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2002, 99:2836-2841).Song and Stinski infected human foreskin fibroblast cells with a replication-defective adenovirus encoding the IE86 protein, then i

-globin locus.

The structure of the HP1 chromodomain shows how it recognizes methylated histone tails.

The ability to taste gives animals a means to assess the identity and quality of potential food substances. In an Advanced Online Publication from Nature, Greg Nelson and colleagues at the University of California at San Diego describe characterization of the mammalian amino-acid taste receptor (Nature 2002, DOI 10.1038/nature726).They employed an expression screening strategy, expressing putative G-protein-coupled receptors in human cells and assaying for stimulus-induced changes in intracellul

The dodo (originally Didus ineptus and renamed Raphus cucullatus) is a mysterious, now extinct, bird that has been difficult to position in evolutionary trees. In the March 1 Science, Beth Shapiro and colleagues at the University of Oxford, UK, report a genetic analysis of the evolutionary history of the dodo (Science 2002, 295:1683).Shapiro et al. examined DNA sequences amplified from the mitochondrial genomes of 37 species of pigeons and doves, including the dodo and the another flightless bir

Bacteria can organize into structured communities, called biofilms, that protect them from antibiotics and from immune attack by the host. The biofilms are embedded in a matrix containing a complex mixture of macromolecules including exopolysaccharides and proteins. In the February 22 Science, Cynthia Whitchurch and colleagues reported that extracellular DNA is a major component of the biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Science 2002, 295:1487).Whitchurch et al. demonstrated that adding DNase I

Large-scale mutagenesis projects using the chemical mutagen ethylnitrosurea (ENU) are being developed to help with the functional annotation of the mouse genome. In an Advanced Online Publication in Nature Genetics, Emma Coghill and colleagues describe a gene-driven approach to find mutant mice (Nat Genet 2002, DOI:10.1038/ng847).Coghill et al. screened over 2,000 samples contained within an archive of DNA and sperm from the UK ENU mutagenesis program. They screened the archives for four genes u

The spatial organization of pericentric chromatin is established by histone acetylation and methylation, and involves an RNA component.

A whole menagerie of animals (including sheep, mice, cattle, goats and pigs) have been cloned by transfer of nuclear genetic material into an enucleated cell. Now, in an Advanced Online Publication from Nature,Taeyoung Shin and colleagues demonstrate that cats (Felis domesticus) can be cloned too (Nature 2002, DOI: 10.1038/nature723).Shin et al. isolated fibroblasts from the oral mucosa of an adult male cat or primary cumulus cell cultures and fused them with enucleated cat ova; they then implan

In the February 21 Nature, an international consortium of laboratories, led by the British Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, reports the complete sequence of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Nature 2002, 415:871-880).The depth of sequence coverage was about eight-fold. The three chromosomes make up a 13.8 Mb genome, which is similar in size to that of the budding yeast S. cerevisiae, but considerably smaller than the other sequenced eukaryotic genomes (fruitfly, nematode worm, human and Ara

Cell shape has a dramatic influence on the organization of the cell and its genetic program. In the February 19 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Carson Thomas and colleagues describe a method to investigate the link between nuclear shape and gene expression (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2002, 99:1972-1977).Thomas et al. studied primary osteogenic cells and measured changes in the expression of genes encoding differentiation markers, such as type I collagen and osteocalcin. They control