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Volume 14 Issue 12, December 2007

The arthropod Dscam genes utilize mutually exclusive splicing of large clusters of variable exons to generate tens of thousands of receptors that function in the nervous and immune systems. Work by Graveley and colleagues now gives insight into regulation of Dscam exon choice. Traffic Light Tree (1998), by Pierre Vivant, symbolizes the role of hrp36 in repressing inclusion of multiple alternative exons in these events. Photo taken and kindly provided by Simon Kimber (www.flickr.com/simonkimber).pp 1334-1140

Volume 14 Issue 12

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Editorial

  • As the weather turns colder in the northern hemisphere, cases of colds and flu rise again, reminding us of the impact of pathogens on our lives.

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News & Views

  • Transcription factors 'recognize' relatively short DNA consensus sequences; their full specificity must depend on a broader set of protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. Joshi et al. show that, in addition to forming base pair–specific hydrogen bonds in the DNA major groove, certain Hox proteins detect DNA shape in the minor groove.

    • Stephen C Harrison
    News & Views

  • Last year Zhang, Kuriyan and colleagues demonstrated that an asymmetric dimer interaction between EGF receptor kinase domains is a key element of receptor activation. They now show that a cellular protein that inhibits receptor activity targets this dimer interface, not only uncovering an important regulatory mechanism but also opening a new route to therapeutic kinase inhibition.

    • Daniel J Leahy
    News & Views

  • The demonstrated ability of modern DNA-dependent RNA polymerases to use RNA templates for productive RNA synthesis suggests that they evolved from ancient RNA-dependent RNA replicases.

    • Irina Artsimovitch
    • Dmitry G Vassylyev
    News & Views

  • Faced with the thermodynamic and kinetic challenge of finding a few specific sites on DNA among millions of nonspecific sites, within a limited amount of time, what's a protein to do? Single-molecule studies show that some proteins have selected sliding on DNA as a solution.

    • Manju M Hingorani
    News & Views
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