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For a comprehensive review of the most interesting recent articles published in the biological sciences, visit Faculty of 1000 Biology, an online literature awareness tool published by BioMed Central. Faculty of 1000 Biology systematically highlights exciting recent publications on the basis of recommendations of a faculty of well over 1,000 of the world's leading researchers. |
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Daniel Weeks
University of Pittsburgh, United States of America
GENOMICS & GENETICS
 Hypothesis
 New Finding
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This interesting paper documents the phenomenon of genetically identical single nucleotide polymorphisms (giSNPs) that are in perfect linkage disequilibrium with each other. While the majority of pairs of giSNPs, as might be expected, occur within a haplotype block, some pairs of giSNPs are quite some distance from each other, which has important and serious consequences for localization of disease genes. Furthermore, it appears that this phenomenon of non-adjacent giSNPs may not be solely a phenomenon of the small sample sizes used in the HapMap project, as the authors still see a fair number of them in a larger sample size.
Evaluated 14 Nov 2005 |
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Ian Dunham
The Sanger Institute, United Kingdom
GENOMICS & GENETICS
 Tech Advance
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This paper reports the first detailed nucleosome-resolution analysis of patterns of covalent histone modification in S. cerevisiae and shows that if there is a histone code, it is a simple, redundant one. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with micrococcal nuclease digestions and microarrays, the authors identify two classes of histone modification patterns at the nucleosomes across yeast genes. One pattern of modification is hypo-acetylation lying immediately adjacent to the nucleosome-free region at transcription start sites, while the other pattern shows a gradient of modification through the coding region of genes and is correlated with transcriptional activity.
Evaluated 17 Nov 2005 |
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Keith Davis
Icoria, Inc., United States of America
PLANT BIOLOGY
New Finding
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This interesting study provides baseline data on 'expression level polymorphisms' in Arabidopsis and serves as a model for how one can utilize the natural genetic variation found in Arabidopsis to understand the control of plant gene expression and function. The authors used microarray analysis to evaluate the genome-wide expression patterns of seven Arabidopsis accessions treated with salicylic acid. The results demonstrated that anywhere from 10-40% of the genes evaluated showed natural variation in expression levels and that there was a correlation between genome-wide sequence divergence and differential gene expression among the accessions studied.
Evaluated 28 Oct 2005 |
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Tamar Barkay
Rutgers University, United States of America
MICROBIOLOGY
 Confirmation
Hypothesis
New Finding
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The results presented here suggest that viral transduction may facilitate evolution of photosynthesis among marine phytoplankton. The relatedness of psbA genes and their product (the D1 component in the reaction center of photosystem II) in Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus spp. and their bacteriophages, and from environmental BAC libraries, was examined to assess the role of xenologous photosynthesis genes in the ecology and evolution of photosynthetic marine organisms. The authors analyzed the phylogenetic relationships, nucleotide and codon evolution rates, G+C content, and informative sites test for recombination to show that psbA genes (i) are evolving under strong selection in both phage and host genomes and (ii) have a mosaic structure suggestive of frequent recombination and gene shuffling events.
Evaluated 7 Nov 2005 |
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Naomi Ward
The Institute for Genomic Research, United States of America
MICROBIOLOGY
New Finding
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This report describes the phylogenetic and metabolic diversity of hydrothermal vent epsilon-Proteobacteria and provides important new information on the wide range of growth substrates that this group can use. Epsilon-Proteobacteria are reportedly widespread and dominant members of microbial communities in hydrothermal ecosystems, and previous studies have described their ability to participate in sulfur cycling (by sulfur oxidation). The study suggests that these organisms may also contribute to hydrogen and nitrogen fluxes in deep-sea environments, a subject of recent interest, e.g., the detection of novel, perhaps archaeal nitrogenase activity in the deep sea (Mehta et al. Environ Microbiol 2005 7:1525-34 [PMID:16156726].).
Evaluated 3 Nov 2005 |
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