News & Views

A new study provides insight into the way plants integrate information from the environment to anticipate the onset of winter. Plants are able to combine information about light quality and ambient temperature to activate the cold- acclimation pathway.

Differences among dog breeds provide unique opportunities for studying the genetics of behavior, morphology and complex disease. Two new studies demonstrate how the unique evolutionary history of domestic dogs is particularly well suited to analysis by genome-wide association.

Two new studies explore the genetic mechanisms connecting aging and tumor growth in Caenorhabditis elegans. This work should provide a basis to consider ways to prevent and treat age-dependent cancers.

A new study in zebrafish shows that Birc2, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family, is required for endothelial cell survival. This discovery highlights an important in vivo function of this molecule and suggests potential avenues for the development of new antiangiogenic therapies.

Optimally positioned crossovers facilitate the proper segregation of chromosomes in meiosis. A new study in yeast implicates the spindle checkpoint in the rescue of crossovers that occur too distant from the centromere, possibly shedding light on the origins of nondisjunction in higher organisms.

The growing list of known microRNAs is only as useful as our ability to identify the mRNA targets they control. A new study stresses the role of messenger RNA structure in microRNA target recognition and suggests that binding of the RNA-induced silencing complex is largely controlled by the thermodynamics of RNA-RNA interactions.

MAGEL2 is located in a cluster of imprinted genes on human chromosome 15 that is implicated in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). A new study shows that mice deficient for this gene show altered behavioral rhythmicity that resembles some features of PWS.

A new study finds that copy number variation in the salivary amylase gene in humans is associated with amylase concentration in saliva and average starch consumption in populations. This provides a striking example of the role of copy number variants (CNVs) in adaptive evolution, and of diet in producing selective pressures.

Two reports present detailed analyses of the haplotype structure of widely used laboratory mice based on resequencing data from 15 inbred strains. The studies provide the deepest view thus far of the patterns of genetic variation segregating in the inbred lines, and have implications for the design of complex trait mapping studies in mice.

The report of a haplotype map for the selfing plant Arabidopsis thaliana has uncovered numerous major-effect polymorphisms and rapid linkage disequilibrium decay. This work lays the foundation for genome-wide association studies at near-gene-level resolution in a model organism possessing substantial functional diversity and extensive community resources.

The discovery of genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis has proven difficult. IL-7Rα, encoded by IL7R, is a pleiomorphic cytokine receptor now implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis in independently replicated genetic association studies.

Identical mutations of the same genes can lead either to congenital malformations or to cancer, depending on their cellular and temporal context. The demonstration of activated RAS-ERK signaling in a mouse model of Apert syndrome suggests that drugs designed to inhibit this pathway in cancer may also delay the progression of several serious pediatric syndromes.

A 23-nucleotide sequence conserved in species from rice to Arabidopsis thaliana in a family of noncoding RNAs resembles a cleavable miRNA target site—but not exactly. A new study demonstrates that the site is not cleaved and instead negatively regulates miRNA activity through mimicry.