Reviews & Analysis

Cell-cycle regulation is emerging as a crucial aspect of the ability of stem cells to self-renew. Genetic studies in mice have provided insights into the nature of this regulation, highlighting shared principles in embryonic and adult stem cells.

From the structure of DNA to epigenetic modifications, structural biology has contributed much to genetics. The benefits can also flow the other way — structural determination is benefiting from high-throughput genomic technologies.

Genome-wide approaches have extended our understanding of known coupling and coordination mechanisms among eukaryotic gene regulatory processes, and they are revealing previously unknown interconnectivities. These findings are providing new insights into how cells generate coordinated, flexible and sensitive gene-expression responses.

The ability to evolve — evolvability — is important in determining the course of evolution. But does evolvability itself evolve, and how should we even agree on a definition of evolvability?

Accumulating evidence suggests that the regulated turnover of nucleosomes is key to the epigenetic regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. This insight has important implications for understanding the functional importance of histone modifications and the incorporation of histone variants into chromatin.

Although genome sequencing has become a routine task, genome annotation remains a complicated business. New computational methods, in combination with experimental methods, are bringing us closer to describing the ORF structure of every gene in every genome.

A detailed picture of the mechanism of homologous recombination has been gathered over the years, but deciphering how homologues get together in the first place has been far more elusive. The authors examine various scenarios for how this might occur.

Studies of Crohn disease have benefited spectacularly from genome-wide association scans. Newly identified susceptibility loci support previously suspected underlying pathways, but also reveal hitherto unexpected putative mechanisms of this disease.

The highly conserved Notch signalling pathway functions at several stages in heart development. The involvement of Notch in development and in congenital and adult cardiovascular disorders is being elucidated through the use of genetic and molecular analyses in animal models.