Table of contents
From the editors
p413 | doi:10.1038/nrg2389
Research Highlights
Global challenges: A sense of identity helps stressed-out plants | PDF (168 KB)
p414 | doi:10.1038/nrg2384
Global challenges: One gene, lots of rice | PDF (136 KB)
p415 | doi:10.1038/nrg2392
Evolution: A gene is born | PDF (134 KB)
p415 | doi:10.1038/nrg2394
Development: Extending the role of FGFs in the limb | PDF (131 KB)
p416 | doi:10.1038/nrg2385
Gene regulation: Opening promoters to flexible expression | PDF (133 KB)
p416 | doi:10.1038/nrg2390
Genomics: Top billing for platypus genome | PDF (130 KB)
p416 | doi:10.1038/nrg2393
In brief
Yeast genetics | Quantitative genetics | Synthetic biology | Gene regulation | PDF (108 KB)
p417 | doi:10.1038/nrg2387
In brief
Epigenetics | Global challenges | Evolution | Disease models | PDF (102 KB)
p418 | doi:10.1038/nrg2388
Genomics: Annotating with proteomes | PDF (155 KB)
p418 | doi:10.1038/nrg2391
Ethics watch
Out of sequence: how consumer genomics could displace clinical genetics | PDF (168 KB)
p419 | doi:10.1038/nrg2374
An Interview With...
Cliff Tabin | PDF (135 KB)
p420 | doi:10.1038/nrg2381
Focus on: Global Challenges
Reviews
Detecting genetic responses to environmental change
Ary A. Hoffmann & Yvonne Willi
p421 | doi:10.1038/nrg2339
Advances in genomics and gene mapping allow sets of candidate genes to be identified for use in monitoring adaptive responses to specific environmental stresses. Such toolkits will allow us to predict the ability of species to adapt to changing environments.
Plant genetic engineering for biofuel production: towards affordable cellulosic ethanol
Mariam B. Sticklen
p433 | doi:10.1038/nrg2336
Making ethanol from cellulose-containing parts of plants is a promising route to abundant biofuel production. Using genetics to decrease the need for crop pretreatment and processing, and to increase yield, will be important in making bioethanol an affordable and plentiful fuel.
Genetic approaches to crop improvement: responding to environmental and population changes
Shin Takeda & Makoto Matsuoka
p444 | doi:10.1038/nrg2342
The combination of environmental change and a rapidly increasing human population is putting global food supplies in danger. Crop improvements that increase yields and enable plants to withstand abiotic stresses will provide an important route to tackling this urgent problem.
Perspective
Science and society
Opposition to transgenic technologies: ideology, interests and collective action frames
Ronald J. Herring
p458 | doi:10.1038/nrg2338
Despite its potential benefits, opposition to transgenic crops remains strong in influential European countries. This article explores the basis for this opposition and looks at its implications for applying transgenic technology in poorer nations, where it is needed the most.
Reviews
DNA methylation landscapes: provocative insights from epigenomics
Miho M. Suzuki & Adrian Bird
p465 | doi:10.1038/nrg2341
Rather than being a mark of irreversible gene silencing that localizes mainly to promoters and intergenic regions, epigenomics approaches are revealing DNA methylation as a surprisingly dynamic regulator of gene expression that might also have important roles within gene bodies.
Article series: Fundamental concepts in genetics
Linkage disequilibrium — understanding the evolutionary past and mapping the medical future
Montgomery Slatkin
p477 | doi:10.1038/nrg2361
Linkage disequilibrium was once a concept used little outside population genetics. However, in the genomics era it has become fundamental to our understanding of the genetic variation that is behind complex traits and evolutionary change.
Perspective
Science and society
Genomic medicine and developing countries: creating a room of their own
Béatrice Séguin, Billie-Jo Hardy, Peter A. Singer & Abdallah S. Daar
p487 | doi:10.1038/nrg2379
The authors explore large-scale population genotyping projects in Mexico, India and Thailand to demonstrate that developing countries can harness human genetic variation to benefit their populations — by adopting these resources to improve public health and create knowledge-based economies.
Corrigendum: Advances in autism genetics: on the threshold of a new neurobiology
Brett S. Abrahams & Daniel H. Geschwind
p493 | doi:10.1038/nrg2380