Viral evolution

Recombination in the hemagglutinin gene of the 1918 “Spanish flu”. Gibbs, M. J. et al. Science 293, 1842–1845 (2001) [PubMed]

A reanalysis of the gene sequence of the influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic — the 'Spanish flu' — has revealed that the major virulence determinant, encoded by the haemagglutinin (HA) locus, originated by recombination. Sequence alignment of three HA genes taken from the 1918 victims against modern-day isolates from humans, pigs and birds indicates that a recombination event occurred between swine- and human-lineage-derived HA sequences just before the 1918 pandemic, suggesting a causal link between the two events.

Mouse genomics

An SSLP marker-anchored BAC framework map of the mouse genome. Cai, W.-W. et al. 133–134 [PubMed]

A radiation hybrid transcript map of the mouse genome. Avner, P. et al. 194–200 [PubMed]

A radiation hybrid map of mouse genes. Hudson, T. J. et al. 201–205 Nature Genet. 29 (2001) [PubMed]

These papers report new resources for the sequencing and functional analysis of the mouse genome. The first reports an SSLP-marker-anchored BAC map of the mouse genome that was generated by using specific probes for library screenings, selected by improved oligo-designer software. This map covers 94% of the genome in 600 contigs. Avner et al. constructed a radiation-hybrid (RH) transcript map of 5,904 mapped EST and STS markers. The mapped ESTs were isolated from a mouse embryonic endoderm library to enrich for transcripts expressed in early development and unlikely to have been previously mapped in humans. Together with the RH map reported by Hudson et al. — which contains 11,109 genes positioned relative to a map of 2,280 markers — these maps provide resources for sequencing the mouse genome, for orthology mapping in humans and for rapidly identifying genes mutated in ENU mutagenesis screens.

Functional genomics

Large-scale identification of mammalian proteins localized to nuclear sub-compartments. Sutherland, H. G. E. et al. Hum. Mol. Genet. 10, 1995–2011 (2001) [PubMed]

Incorrect nuclear protein localization has been associated with human disease and cancer. Sutherland et al. tracked subnuclear protein localization in mouse embryonic stem cells using a previously developed gene-trap screen, in which a lacZ marker is inserted into introns and the chimeric proteins are detected by immunostaining. The authors found that proteins that share subnuclear localization contain similar domains, indicating that the localization of these proteins can be predicted from their sequence.