Nature Reviews Genetics

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Review

Evolutionary analysis of the dynamics of viral infectious disease

Oliver G. Pybus & Andrew Rambaut

The rapid evolution of many important pathogens, particularly RNA viruses, means that their ecological and evolutionary dynamics occur on the same timescale. This Review discusses the insights into the transmission and epidemiology of viruses that have been provided by analyses of their evolutionary dynamics across a wide range of biological scales.

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Review

Fitness and its role in evolutionary genetics

H. Allen Orr

The concept of fitness is fundamental to understanding natural selection, but defining and measuring fitness involves some subtle distinctions. This Review explains theoretical aspects of fitness, introduces current experimental approaches and highlights issues that remain unresolved.

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Review

Making a firm decision: multifaceted regulation of cell fate in the early mouse embryo

Magdalena Zernicka–Goetz, Samantha A. Morris & Alexander W. Bruce

How cell fate decisions are made is a fundamental question in developmental biology. Recent analyses of the first two fate decisions in mammalian embryogenesis illustrate the potential interplay of transcriptional circuits, epigenetic modification, cell position and polarity in lineage choice.

CURRENT ISSUE

Review

Transcription factories: gene expression in unions?

Heidi Sutherland & Wendy A. Bickmore

Foci of transcriptional activity are observed in eukaryotic nuclei and have been called transcription factories. However, many uncertainties about their function and identity remain and the evidence can be conflicting, as the authors discuss in this Review.

CURRENT ISSUE

Perspective

Mitochondrial and plastid evolution in eukaryotes: an outsiders' perspective

Jeferson Gross & Debashish Bhattacharya

The mitochondrion and plastid are derived from bacterial endosymbionts that were transformed over time into organelles. Here the authors posit an explanation for how the eukaryotic hosts controlled the evolution of these organelles through the establishment of protein–sorting systems.

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Research Highlights

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Web Collection on Influenza

Influenza pandemics occur with some frequency, as indicated by the recent outbreak of swine flu (influenza A (H1N1)). Learn more about influenza, previous 'flu pandemics, preventative measures against 'flu and how the spread of disease can be modelled and possibly predicted with these selected Nature Reviews Microbiology and Nature Reviews Genetics articles.

Supplement on genomic medicine in developing countries

This collection of Perspective articles describes human genome variation studies taking place in Mexico, India, Thailand, and South Africa. It discusses the challenges and opportunities facing these and other developing countries in harnessing genomics for the benefit of their populations.

Milestones in DNA technologies

Nature Methods, Nature Reviews Genetics and Nature are proud to present The Nature Milestones in DNA technologies, a series of articles and commentaries highlighting the most influential developments in DNA–related techniques over the past half–century.
Visit the Milestones website made freely accessible thanks to the support of QIAGEN.

Web focuses

A Web Focus is a selection of articles on a related theme drawn from the entire Nature Publishing Group family of journals. With content ranging from Research Highlights, Reviews and Perspectives through to primary research papers, a Web Focus provides a panoramic view of a key area of biology.

RNAi animation

Nature Reviews Genetics and Arkitek present an animation of the RNAi process. Click here for access to the accompanying RNAi Web Focus, which includes relevant content from across Nature Publishing Group.

Statistical genetics audio supplement

How will advances in statistics aid genetic analyses? Find out what the experts think in our Focus audio supplement: 'Genetics by numbers'

Nature Omics gateway

The Nature Omics gateway is a comprehensive compilation of large-scale genomic biology content, drawn from the complete range of Nature Publishing Group publications. Content includes research and review articles, news, commentaries and research highlights.

Journal Citation Reports, Thomson, 2008

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