Reviews & Analysis

Earth’s landscapes and biodiversity are being eroded at an unprecedented pace and scale. This Review argues that genomics tools need to be adopted in restoration ecology to help reverse the environmental destruction caused by humans.

In most human genes, RNA 3ʹ end cleavage and polyadenylation can occur at multiple, alternative sites, enabling the expression of distinct transcripts. Novel techniques to sequence RNA 3ʹ ends, coupled with innovative computational methods for studying the list of polyadenylation sites that they generate, have uncovered the roles of alternative cleavage and polyadenylation in both health and disease.

Global genomic diversity can provide new opportunities for discovery and translation into therapies, as well as a better understanding of population disease risks. This Review considers the value of examining diverse populations to better understand genetic contributors to disease risk and trait variation.

Somatic genetic rescue (SGR) occurs when an acquired somatic mutation counteracts the effects of a germline mutation at a cellular level. The increasing number of SGR events reported for Mendelian haematopoietic diseases have important diagnostic, therapeutic and clinical consequences.

In this Review, van Rheenen et al. outline how improved methodologies have enabled genetic correlations to be estimated for almost any trait pair. Genetic correlations can improve our understanding of the shared biology and causal relationships between traits.

Enabled by genome-wide profiling approaches, there is growing appreciation for the prevalence and functional importance of various types of chromatin-associated RNAs. As Li and Fu describe in this Review, these RNAs can either be retained in cis at their site of transcription or recruited in cis to other loci, and they have diverse roles in gene regulation, genome organization, nuclear body formation and phase-separation events.

This Review discusses the current status of expanded carrier screening, including existing recommendations and limitations. The author reviews the framework that is needed for successful comprehensive carrier screening programmes for all autosomal recessive disorders in various populations.

Gene expression is subjected to various random processes (referred to as ‘noise’) that contribute to variability in molecular phenotypes. As Eling, Morgan and Marioni describe, there are various challenges to studying this variability, such as disentangling its multilayered sources, distinguishing it from deterministic influences on cellular variability, modelling it with appropriate statistical methods and understanding its practical consequences.

For appropriate control of gene expression, enhancers must communicate with the right target genes at the right time, typically over large genomic distances. In this Review, Schoenfelder and Fraser discuss our latest understanding of long-range enhancer–promoter crosstalk, including target-gene specificity, interaction dynamics, protein and RNA architects of interactions, roles of 3D genome organization and the pathological consequences of regulatory rewiring.

Despite the success of human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in associating genetic variants and complex diseases or traits, criticisms of the usefulness of this study design remain. This Review assesses the pros and cons of GWAS, with a focus on the cardiometabolic field.

Throughout evolution, DNA has been the primary medium of biological information storage. In this article, Ceze, Nivala and Strauss discuss how DNA can be adopted as a storage medium for custom data, as a potential future complement to current data storage media such as computer hard disks, optical disks and tape. They discuss strategies for coding, decoding and error correction and give examples of implementation both in vitro and in vivo.

This Review describes different deep learning techniques and how they can be applied to extract biologically relevant information from large, complex genomic data sets.

This article reviews recent advances in ancient pathogen genomics, from methodological improvements in retrieving whole genomes to evolutionary analyses of ancient pathogens that remain relevant to public health. Focusing on the evolutionary history of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis, the authors present unique insights afforded by the study of ancient pathogen genomes.

Recent next-generation sequencing studies have captured the spatial and temporal evolutionary patterns that shape cancer. This Review provides an overview of the theoretical models of tumour evolution and discusses what to consider when inferring evolutionary dynamics from genomic data.

Clinical metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is rapidly moving from bench to bedside. This Review discusses the clinical applications of mNGS, including infectious disease diagnostics, microbiome analyses, host response analyses and oncology applications. Moreover, the authors review the challenges that need to be overcome for mNGS to be successfully implemented in the clinical laboratory and propose solutions to maximize the benefits of clinical mNGS for patients.

Using the example of carbon concentrating mechanisms in plants, the authors of this Perspective provide evidence that broad comparative genomic analyses likely overestimate the genetic complexity underlying convergent evolution of complex traits.

Eukaryotes differ substantially from bacteria and archaea owing to their nucleosome-based packaging of DNA. In this Review, Talbert, Meers and Henikoff place gene regulation in an evolutionary context by discussing how the emergence and diversification of eukaryotic chromatin provided both challenges and opportunities for intricate mechanisms of gene regulation in eukaryotes.

Next-generation sequencing has improved the identification and characterization of antimicrobial resistance. Focusing on sequence-based discovery of antibiotic resistance genes, this Review discusses computational strategies and resources for resistance gene identification in genomic and metagenomic samples, including recent deep-learning approaches.

Transposable elements (TEs) need to be tightly regulated in genomes to prevent the detrimental consequences of transposition. In this Review, Deniz, Frost and Branco discuss how DNA methylation dynamics play a central role in the multilayered epigenetic mechanisms regulating TEs. Beyond roles for 5-methylcytosine (5mC), they discuss TET-mediated oxidation products of 5mC, as well as ongoing debates about the functional relevance of adenine methylation.

In this Timeline article, Shay and Wright provide a historical account of progress in our understanding of telomeres (the ends of linear chromosomes) and telomerase (the primary enzyme that maintains and extends telomere lengths). Their perspective covers seminal moments from the early discoveries through to our latest understanding of the roles of telomeres and telomerase in ageing, diverse human diseases and gene regulation.