Research Highlights

A paper in Nature Genetics identifies a mechanism involving the transcription factor DUXBL that controls the development of early embryonic mouse cells past stages marked by totipotency.

A paper in Nature reports a ‘Z-DNA-anchored’ model for the target specificity of the transcription factor AIRE, involving promoter poising at double-strand breaks.

A publication in Nature reports the data release of around 245,000 clinical-grade whole-genome sequences as part of the NIH’s All of Us Research Programme. Several companion papers highlight the value of better capturing global genomic diversity.

A study in Science reports that corn snakes use both PRDM9 and promoter-like features to direct meiotic recombination, indicating that these are not mutually exclusive.

A study in Nature Genetics identifies many regulators of genome-wide chromatin accessibility and then reports the mechanistic underpinnings for one of the identified transcription factors.

Lan et al. report a high-throughput method for single-cell sequencing of diverse microbial communities.

A study in Science uses bacteria from the Long-Term Evolution Experiment to report on how fitness effects of mutations change through evolution.

A study in Nature describes how single-cell expression data can be used to understand gene regulatory landscapes in bacteria.

Four papers in Nature describe how ancient European migration patterns have shaped the modern human genome.

The Farm Animal GTEx project introduces a new resource for pigs, in which they map genetic variation to differences in gene expression across thousands of samples.

A study in Nature Biotechnology reports a platform that combines lentivirus capabilities with antibody recognition for targeted cell delivery and genome editing.

Beer et al. use multiple complementary approaches to show that declining densities of the Tasmanian devil have had evolutionary effects on gene flow and selection in the subordinate predator, the spotted-tail quoll.

Pollex et al. investigate the mechanisms by which chromatin loops bring together paralogues to coordinate gene expression in Drosophila.

A study published in Science develops an efficient mining algorithm to identify and then experimentally characterize many rare CRISPR systems.

Two papers in Nature Biotechnology report spatial transcriptomic methods for the simultaneous capture of host and microbial genes to study host–microorganism interactions.

Martin et al. report that the EP400/TIP60 complex can compensate for function of the SWI/SNF complex to remodel chromatin at some promoters.

Zhang et al. describe mSwAP-In, a platform for large-scale, efficient, biallelic and ‘scarless’ genome editing in mice.

Johnson et al. identify a WNT regulator that underlies the development and evolution of distinct colour patterning in the African striped mouse.

Three papers in Nature report on the largest open-access plasma proteomics dataset to date, a valuable resource for understanding human disease and the identification of drug targets.

Legnini et al. report in Nature Methods their new optogenetic method for controlling gene expression in organoids that can be coupled with single-cell and spatial transcriptomics.