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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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Isaac Kohane
Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital, United States of America
PHYSIOLOGY
 New Finding
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In the context of all the bioinformatics search algorithms for miRNA targets/binding sites, this paper helps cast the light of empiricism on some of these results. An in vivo assay is used to explore the downregulation of a target gene of a nematode miRNA. It appears that there is considerably more complexity in the effective downregulation of the target beyond the immediate region of complementarity (i.e. the context of the target site does matter); however, it is unclear to what extent the findings here can be generalized.
Evaluated 15 Feb 2005 |
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Molly Przeworski
Brown University, United States of America
GENOMICS & GENETICS
 Controversial
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This large-scale analysis of ape and rodent genomes yields little or no evidence for natural selection (either positive or purifying) acting on non-protein-coding regions of the human genome. In contrast, there is evidence for purifying selection on these regions in murid genomes. This finding suggests that the smaller effective population size of humans may render selection ineffective at purging mildly deleterious alleles.
Evaluated 9 Feb 2005 |
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Lawrence Chasin
University of Texas, United States of America
CELL BIOLOGY
 Tech Advance
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This paper describes the engineering of a splicing substrate and 2 splicing factor fusion proteins such that splicing is dependent on the presence of a rapamycin derivative bringing the 2 splicing factors domains together. This ability to turn on splicing with a small molecule may be useful for studying the kinetics of splice site recognition. If it can be extended to cells, it should prove useful in evaluating the roles of protein splicing isoforms.
Evaluated 16 Feb 2005 |
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Michael Cappello
Yale University School of Medicine, United States of America
MICROBIOLOGY
New Finding
Tech Advance
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This paper demonstrates the potential to induce gene silencing of Trypanosoma brucei via RNA interference within a mammalian host. Mice infected with trypanosomes transfected with an inducible plasmid vector allowing for production of gene-specific dsRNA demonstrated a transient suppression of parasitemia and prolonged survival compared to controls. Although the effect was transient, these data support the concept that RNAi can be utilized in vivo to characterize the role of specific gene products in pathogenesis.
Evaluated 14 Feb 2005 |
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Karin Schmitt
Open Biosystems, United States of America
GENOMICS & GENETICS
Tech Advance
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This is the first paper describing the use microarrays to simultaneously measure gene expression, genotype and detect allele-specific expression, based on the hybridization of mRNA to a microarray. Studies in yeast are presented in a proof-of-principle experiment. The method has some disadvantage (for example: relying on reduced marker density for genotyping) and a high false positive rate for allele-specific expression but overall presents an interesting approach.
Evaluated 10 Feb 2005 |
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