Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 965 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2473

Author: Andreas Wagner

Neutralism and selectionism are extremes of an explanatory spectrum for understanding patterns of molecular evolution and the emergence of evolutionary innovation. Although recent genome-scale data from protein-coding genes argue against neutralism, molecular engineering and protein evolution data argue that neutral mutations and mutational robustness are

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 899 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2454

Authors: Gloria A. Brar & Angelika Amon

Centromeres are an essential and conserved feature of eukaryotic chromosomes, yet recent research indicates that we are just beginning to understand the numerous roles that centromeres have in chromosome segregation. During meiosis I, in particular, centromeres seem to function in many processes in addition to

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 896 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2486

Author: Meera Swami

A major challenge in biomolecular computing is to create a programmable molecular device that can function autonomously inside a living cell. Now, a significant contribution has been made towards this goal by the construction of a synthetic RNA device that can integrate into and act

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 894 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2493

Author: Tanita Casci

The variety of forms seen in nature is remarkable, yet organisms display only a small fraction of all possible forms. Several factors influence this developmental constraint on phenotypic diversity, although their relative contribution has been difficult to quantify. A computational model based simply on regulatory

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 894 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2494

Author: Mary Muers

Alternative splicing of precursor mRNA is a key mechanism for generating proteomic diversity. Two new studies using high-throughput sequencing technology now indicate that the vast majority of human genes have multiple splice forms. Together with two other recent studies, which have also used transcriptome-wide analysis,

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 897 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2496

Author: Elizabeth Neame

Biological networks are highly dynamic, and respond to changing conditions in myriad ways. Studies aimed at understanding how these networks contribute to cellular function have uncovered motifs — patterns of interactions between genes —that are abundant within biological networks. But the information given by these

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 923 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2466

Authors: Robin C. Allshire & Gary H. Karpen

The assembly of just a single kinetochore at the centromere of each sister chromatid is essential for accurate chromosome segregation during cell division. Surprisingly, despite their vital function, centromeres show considerable plasticity with respect to their chromosomal locations and activity. The establishment and maintenance of

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 951 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2480

Authors: Masatoshi Nei, Yoshihito Niimura & Masafumi Nozawa

Chemosensory receptors are essential for the survival of organisms that range from bacteria to mammals. Recent studies have shown that the numbers of functional chemosensory receptor genes and pseudogenes vary enormously among the genomes of different animal species. Although much of the variation can be

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 911 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2415

Authors: Carole Ober, Dagan A. Loisel & Yoav Gilad

Sexual dimorphism in anatomical, physiological and behavioural traits are characteristics of many vertebrate species. In humans, sexual dimorphism is also observed in the prevalence, course and severity of many common diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and asthma. Although sex differences in the endocrine and

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 938 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2482

Authors: Gavin C. Conant & Kenneth H. Wolfe

Gene duplication provides raw material for functional innovation. Recent advances have shed light on two fundamental questions regarding gene duplication: which genes tend to undergo duplication? And how does natural selection subsequently act on them? Genomic data suggest that different gene classes tend to be

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 891 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2490

The conventional view of a centromere is a piece of DNA that ensures chromosomes hook properly onto microtubules, so that they can part seamlessly during cell division. Over the past few years, studies have revealed some of the additional and equally vital roles carried out

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 893 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2491

Author: Louisa Flintoft

The number of people to have their genome fully sequenced has doubled, from two to four. Craig Venter and James Watson are now joined by two anonymous individuals — one Han Chinese and the other Nigerian — as reported in two studies that explore the

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 898 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2492

Author: Mary Muers

Links between long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and gene silencing have been made since the identification of the X chromosome-inactivation transcript (XIST) in the early 1990s; what has remained enigmatic is the mechanism by which lncRNAs block gene expression. Two recent papers now show

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 896 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2495

Author: Tanita Casci

Analysing the results of genome-wide association studies is a painstaking effort — each SNP has to pass stringent significance thresholds to be regarded as a respectable candidate. An alternative approach to determining gene variants that contribute to a particular trait is to group all SNPs

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 895 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2497

Synthetic biologyA fast, robust and tunable synthetic gene oscillator.Stricker, J.et al. Nature29 Oct 2008 (doi:10.1038/nature07389)Synthetic biologists aim to engineer biological circuits that have predictable functions. The authors have constructed a genetic oscillator in Escherichia coli

Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 898 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrg2498

Human diseaseThe Human Phenotype Ontology: a tool for annotating and analyzing human hereditary disease.Robinson, P. N.et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet.83, 1–6 (2008)The ability to compare phenotypic features is central to identifying