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Given the volume, complexity and heterogeneity of data generated by high-throughput approaches, modern biology needs standards for data representation and communication. But how should such standards be developed? What types of standard are needed and what determines whether they are successfully adopted by the community?
Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are members of a unique and conserved family of intracellular lipid kinases that regulate a wide range of biological functions. Our understanding of the intricate regulation of this pathway is being applied to identify therapeutic strategies for diabetes and cancer.
In mammals, the SRY protein initiates the male developmental programme. This begins with testis determination and is followed by a network of transcriptional and endocrine signalling events in other organs. The authors review our current understanding of this process.
Fifteen years after the first generation of microarray platforms for highly parallel genomic analysis, intrinsically parallel whole-genome approaches to genotyping, epigenetic profiling and sequencing are being developed. What are the recent key developments that promise to transform the study of human health and disease?
The sex chromosomes of mammals andDrosophilaspecies are broadly similar, including in the forces that have shaped their independent evolution. Studying the basis of their differences, however, is informing our understanding of several population-genetic processes beyond eukaryotic-genome evolution.
Although genetics flourished in the first half of the twentieth century, human cytogenetics lagged behind, held up by the obstinate belief that humans had 48 chromosomes. This article examines the technical and psychological factors that hampered progress in the field.
