Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Newly specified hepatic and pancreatic progenitors, which originate from common endodermal domains, are able to reverse their course and develop into gut progenitors. Understanding what underlies such programming reversal and intrinsic regenerative capacities should illuminate the basis of cellular plasticity and facilitate targeted programming of stem cells.
The highly heterogeneous nature of autism has made this syndrome difficult to dissect genetically. Recent work has highlighted the importance ofde novoand inherited copy number variation as well as common genetic risk variants in defining potential biological mechanisms of disease.
Genome-wide association studies have led to an improved understanding of the genetic basis of common diseases. Following the first wave of such studies, this Review takes a critical look at progress so far and considers how future studies can be optimized.
Established during embryogenesis, vertebrate segmentation is most conspicuous at the level of the periodic arrangement of vertebrae in the spine. Since the identification of the segmentation clock, which is a travelling oscillator, the generation of segmental pattern in the presomitic mesoderm has been a particular focus of attention.
Tight coordination of gene expression between the nucleus and genome-containing organelles (mitochondria and chloroplasts), and between organelles themselves, is essential to the survival of a eukaryotic cell. This article reviews our current understanding of the mechanisms behind this multidirectional signalling.
How did the complex regulatory networks that control eukaryotic gene expression evolve? This article explores evidence that transposable elements played an important part by providing thecis and transcomponents of these networks.
The unprecedented amount of data in biomedical sciences is putting the well-known ethical issues such as privacy, confidentiality and consent for research under pressure. These authors propose that an open-consent framework, as implemented in the Personal Genome Project, might help avoid the constraints that are inherent in the current concepts of genetic privacy.
