Top 7 in genetics and genomics

linkurl:1. How Tregs limit inflammation;http://bit.ly/iT35TCell T-regulatory cells can multiply their numbers by secreting the cytokine interleukin IL-35, which converts the population of T-cells involved in killing (effector T-cells) into regulatory cells that suppress inflammation, providing a new explanation for how inflammation is reeled in after an infection is cleared. L.W. Collison et al., "IL-35-mediated induction of a potent regulatory T cell population," Nat Immunol, 12:1093-101, 2010. Evaluations by Avinash Bhandoola, Univ Penn; Christian Engwerda, Queensland Inst Med Res, Australia; Lieping Chen, Johns Hopkins Univ Sch of Med; David Serreze, The Jackson Lab; Xiaojing Ma, Weill Med Coll of Cornell Univ; Stephen Cobbold, Univ Oxford; Stanley Perlman, Univ Iowa. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/iT35TCell

linkurl:2. Epigenetic thermometer;http://bit.ly/HSAZFunction Eukaryotes, such as yeast and plants, can sense ambient temperatures at the level of their DNA by evicting or incorporating a histone variant called H2A.Z, which is often associated with gene activation.S.V. Kumar and P.A. Wigge, "H2A.Z-containing nucleosomes mediate the thermosensory response in Arabidopsis," Cell, 140:136-47, 2010. Evaluations by Motoaki Seki, RIKEN Plant Sci Center, Japan; Deyou Zheng, Albert Einstein Coll Med; Detlef Weigel, Max Planck Inst for Dev Biol, Germany; Tapio Palva, Univ Helsinki, Finland; Shimpei Magori and Vitaly Citovsky, SUNYork Stony Brook: Yeqin M. Kong and Xing Wang Deng, Yale Univ. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/HSAZFunction linkurl:3. Fat rat daddies have diabetic daughters;http://bit.ly/FatDadDiabeticDaughter Male rats fed a high-fat diet had daughters with diabetes-like beta cell dysfunction, showing, for the first time in mammals, that environment of the parent can influence the phenotype of the offspring.S.F. Ng et al., "Chronic high-fat diet in fathers programs beta-cell dysfunction in female rat offspring," Nature, 467:963-6, 2010. Evaluations by Qingchun Tong and Perry Bickel, Univ Texas; Atsushi Iriki, RIKEN Brain Sci Inst, Japan; Mehboob Hussain, Johns Hopkins Univ; William H Colledge, Univ Cambridge. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/FatDadDiabeticDaughter linkurl:4. More complex environments = more sex;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57757/ Rotifers -- protists capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction -- were more likely to reproduce sexually when raised in environments with a mixture of high and low-quality food than populations raised in more homogeneous conditions, providing a clue as to why sexual reproduction is so common among animals, despite its inherent costs.L. Becks and A.F. Agrawal, "Higher rates of sex evolve in spatially heterogeneous environments," Nature, 468:89-92, 2010. Evaluations by Hanno Seebens and Bernd Blasius, Carl-von-Ossietzky Univ, Germany; Tony D Long, UC Irvine; Richard Frankham, Macquarie Univ, Australia. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/HeterogeneousSex linkurl:5. Jumping genes mold mammal brains;http://bit.ly/L1MeCP2 The transcription and activity of long interdispersed nuclear elements (L1), common transposons in mammalian tissues, are repressed by methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), a protein involved in global DNA methylation and human neurodevelopmental diseases, establishing a mechanism whereby L1 influences neurogenesis. A.R. Muotri et al., "L1 retrotransposition in neurons is modulated by MeCP2," Nature, 468:443-6, 2010. Evaluations by Joachim Messing, Rutgers Univ; Travis Thomson and William Theurkauf, Univ Mass Med Center. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/L1MeCP2 linkurl:6. A genome architecture map;http://bit.ly/ChromMap A detailed, 3-dimensional map of interactions between chromosome regions in yeast reveals that functionally related genes tend to be physically closer within the nucleus among other insights.H. Tanizawa et al., "Mapping of long-range associations throughout the fission yeast genome reveals global genome organization linked to transcriptional regulation," Nucleic Acids Res, 38:8164-77, 2010. Evaluation by Richard Maraia, Nat Inst of Child Health and Human Dev; Jurg Bahler, Univ Coll London. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/ChromMap linkurl:7. A function for mTORC2;http://bit.ly/mTORC2Func The kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) comes in two flavors -- complex 1 (mTORC1), involved in transcription initiation, and complex 2 (mTORC2), whose function has long been a mystery to researchers. A new study proposes that mTORC2 controls protein quality by stabilizing proteins and ensuring their structural integrity as they are synthesized. W.J. Oh et al., "mTORC2 can associate with ribosomes to promote cotranslational phosphorylation and stability of nascent Akt polypeptide," EMBO, 29:3939-51. Evaluations by Jose Mulet and Ramon Serrano, Univ Politecnica de Valencia-CSIC, Spain; Pam Lochhead and Simon Cook, Mol Signalling Lab, UK; Xuemin Wang and Christopher Proud. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/mTORC2Func The F1000 Top 7 is a snapshot of the highest ranked articles from a 30-day period on Faculty of 1000 Genetics and Genomics and, as calculated on January 13, 2011. Faculty Members evaluate and rate the most important papers in their field. To see the latest rankings, search the database, and read daily evaluations, visit linkurl:http://f1000.com.;http://f1000.com
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Top 7 in immunology;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57918/
[11th January 2011]*linkurl:Top 7 papers in multicellularity;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57906/
[5th January 2011]*linkurl:Top 7 in biochemistry;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57904/
[4th January 2011]

Top 7 in genetics and genomics

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

Related Research Resources

How Do Embryos Know How Fast to Develop

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

The Advent of Automated and AI-Driven Benchwork

Become a PCR Pro

Genetic Insights Break Infectious Pathogen Barriers

Navigating Cold Storage Solutions

Products

Product News

Sapio Sciences Makes AI-Native Drug Discovery Seamless with NVIDIA BioNeMo

New DeNovix Helium Nano Volume Spectrophotometer

Olink® Reveal: Accessible NGS-based proteomics for every lab

Zymo Research Launches the Quick-16S™ Full-Length Library Prep Kit