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Heritability is one of the oldest parameters in genetics, but also one of the most misunderstood. The authors explore exactly what heritability means, the pitfalls to avoid when using it, and its continued relevance in the genomics era.
It is conventionally thought that there is a simple relationship between viral mutation rates and polymerase fidelity. This article argues that the pattern of virus evolution is also shaped by other aspects of viral biology.
Genetic, biochemical, ultrastructural and physiological studies of mouse mutants have crucially advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of hearing. A detailed picture is emerging of the protein complexes that are responsible for the growth and cohesion of the stereocilia bundle — a complex subcellular structure at the core of the auditory apparatus.
Microarray-based approaches are a fast, flexible and inexpensive alternative to genome sequencing for characterizing the genomes of many individuals within a species. This article reviews the advances that are making microarrays a viable choice for detecting all forms of genetic diversity.
Comparative genomics is a promising approach for identifying functional components of genomes. However, many challenges remain, relating to the quality and quantity of sequence data, how sequences are aligned and, ultimately, how functional elements are recognized.
In this Essay, Leonid Kruglyak looks back at the concepts, resources and techniques that laid the necessary foundations for the recent explosion of genome-wide association studies, focusing on the less well-chronicled days before the launch of the HapMap project and speculates about future developments.
