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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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Kathleen Hall
Washington University School of Medicine, United States of America
CELL BIOLOGY
 Hypothesis
 New Finding
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This is an illuminating and thorough study of the preferred RNA substrates for human Drosha that provides a realistic model of how miRNA processing occurs in the nucleus. The model based on the many RNA targets used in these experiments describes a target hairpin RNA with a large (floppy?) loop and a long stem. The detail now available for identification of a genuine target for Drosha will greatly aid computational methods that look for these pre-miRNAs in the genome.
Evaluated 21 Dec 2004 |
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Tracy Raivio
University of Alberta, Canada
MICROBIOLOGY
New Finding
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This paper describes a new, effective method for the development of a saturating bank of transposon mutants using an in vitro, Tn7-based system in the genetically intractable organism Helicobacter pylori. The authors use microarrays in combination with semi-randomly primed PCR products to identify the locations of the mutations and to provide confirmation that the genes in which no hits were obtained are enriched for essential functions that might later prove useful in the development of new therapies. Interestingly, there is relatively little overlap between the set of essential genes identified in this study and those in other organisms, indicating that essentiality is likely specific to both the organism and the growth conditions.
Evaluated 20 Dec 2004 |
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Jurg Bahler
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom
CELL BIOLOGY
 Confirmation
New Finding
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This paper provides a thoughtful and comprehensive integration of various genome-wide yeast datasets, leading to unique insights into the contribution of transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms for gene expression control. The data indicate substantial differences in the post-transcriptional regulation of protein levels as a function of cellular compartments or functional modules.
Evaluated 17 Dec 2004 |
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Jonathan A. Eisen
The Institute for Genomic Research, United States of America
MICROBIOLOGY
New Finding
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Convergent evolution is well documented on the phenotypic level; this paper is one of the better cases, showing it occurs at the molecular level as well. The authors present evolutionary analysis that suggests distantly related taxa (animals and fungi) have separately evolved similar features of their sex determining loci. It seems likely that the convergent evolution shown here is probably due to relativly simple factors (e.g. linkage effects, genome degradation due to low levels of recombination, etc.) but it is still striking. It is likely that more and more examples of convergent evolution at the molecular level will be found. This should serve as a warning to those who would like to use small regions of similarity between species (e.g. domains) to conclude unusual evolutionary processes (e.g. lateral transfer between bacteria and animals) -- such similarities could be due to convergence instead.
Evaluated 14 Dec 2004 |
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Andreas Ziegler
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
IMMUNOLOGY
Hypothesis
New Finding
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This is just one of several articles (for a review and many useful references see {1}) that highlight the fascinating possibilities that research into canine genetics offers. By comparing the degree of linkage disequilibrium (LD) at five genomic intervals in five different breeds of dogs, the work by Sutter and colleagues demonstrates that LD is up to 100x more extensive than it is in humans, indicating that disease gene mapping in dogs could be much less elaborate than in our species. Apart from these medical considerations, a genetic comparison between the incredibly diverse dog breeds will unravel the basis for the many different sizes, shapes and other bodily features, or teach us how genetic polymorphisms relate to behaviour. Therefore, one day we may understand why a Labrador Retriever finds fulfillment in retrieving while a Pug prefers to sit on our lap and eat cookies. {1} Sutter and Ostrander. Nat Rev Genet 2004, 5:900-10 [PMID:15573122].
Evaluated 8 Dec 2004 |
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