Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Whats G3?
We are a peer-edited journal of the Genetics Society
of America. We publish papers that are high quality,
useful, and robust. We dont require subjective impact
or significance.
Brenda J. Andrews
Editor-in-Chief,
G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics
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GENOME REPORTS
The first Genome Report described two wild-derived mouse inbred strains
that were among the top ten inbred strains recommended for resequencing
based on their potential to increase the catalog of known mouse variants. The
work expands the number of wild-derived inbred genomes in the Mus genus
from six to eight.
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MUTANT SCREEN REPORT
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INVESTIG ATIONS
EDITORS NOTE On November 11, 1954, a small group of fruit flies were
plunged into the dark. More than sixty years later, the descendents of those
flies have adapted to a life without light. Izutsu et al. show that these flies
outcompete the wild type in conditions of constant darkness. This competitive
difference allowed the authors to perform re-selection experiments and identify
candidate genes involved in adaptation of the Dark-fly line.
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An SEM image of the head of a Dark-fly adult.
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Combinatorial Cis-regulation in
Saccharomyces Species
Aaron T. Spivak and Gary D. Stormo
G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics March 2016 6: 653667
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MOTOR PROGRAMS Drosophila larval crawling is an attractive
system to study rhythmic motor output at the level of animal behavior.
Clark et al. performed a genetic screen to identify neurons that, when
activated, could elicit distinct motor programs. The image shows
larvae of different ages during locomotion; color-coding represents
the temporal axis (blue early > white late). Each larva is a different
genotype with distinct locomotor behaviors (e.g., lower right, paralysis).
See G3 6: 20232031. Image: Matt Q. Clark.
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ABSTRACT At northern latitudes, the most robust cue for assessing the
onset of winter is the shortening of day lengths. Many species use day length
as a cue to increase their cold tolerance and/or enter into diapause, but
little is known about changes in gene expression that occur under different
day lengths. We investigate the gene expression changes associated with
differences in light/dark cycles in Drosophila montana, a northerly distributed
species with a strong adult photoperiodic reproductive diapause. To examine
gene expression changes induced by light both prior to and during diapause,
we used both nondiapausing and diapausing flies. We found that the majority
of genes that are differentially expressed between different day lengths in
nondiapausing and diapausing flies differ. However, the biological processes
involved were broadly similar. These included neuron development and
metabolism, which are largely consistent with an increase in cold tolerance
previously observed to occur in these flies. We also found that many genes
associated with reproduction change in expression level between different
day lengths, suggesting that D. montana use changes in day length to cue
changes in reproduction both before and after entering into diapause. Finally,
we also identified several interesting candidate genes for light-induced
changes including Lsp2, para, and Ih.
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EDITORS NOTE More than 60% of the total production costs in pig farming
go to feed, so feed efficiency (FE) is an important economic trait. Zhao et
al. compared the liver transcriptomes of pigs with extremely high and low
FE. Their results suggest that vitamin A metabolism in liver tissue plays an
important role in FE by affecting energy metabolism, which may mediate fatty
acid biosynthesis and steroid hormone metabolism.
ABSTRACT Feed efficiency (FE) is essential for pig production. In this study,
300 significantly differentially expressed (DE) transcripts, including 232
annotated genes, 28 cis-natural antisense transcripts (cis-NATs), and 40 long
noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), were identified between the liver of Yorkshire pigs
with extremely high and low FE. Among these transcripts, 25 DE lncRNAs
were significantly correlated with 125 DE annotated genes at a transcriptional
level. These DE genes were enriched primarily in vitamin A (VA), fatty acid,
and steroid hormone metabolism. VA metabolism is regulated by energy
status, and active derivatives of VA metabolism can regulate fatty acid and
steroid hormones metabolism. The key genes of VA metabolism (CYP1A1,
ALDH1A2, and RDH16), fatty acid biosynthesis (FASN, SCD, CYP2J2, and
ANKRD23), and steroid hormone metabolism (CYP1A1, HSD17B2, and
UGT2B4) were significantly upregulated in the liver of high-FE pigs. Previous
study with the same samples indicated that the mitochondrial function and
energy expenditure were reduced in the muscle tissue of high-FE pigs.
In conclusion, VA metabolism in liver tissues plays important roles in the
regulation of FE in pigs by affecting energy metabolism, which may mediate
fatty acid biosynthesis and steroid hormone metabolism. Furthermore, our
results identified novel transcripts, such as cis-NATs and lncRNAs, which are
also involved in the regulation of FE in pigs.
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NEW SETTLEMENTS Increasingly, researchers are interested in
estimating the heritability of traits for nonmodel organisms. Davies
et al. describe a quantitative genetic methodology for traits in highly
fecund species and illustrate their method by estimating the narrow-
sense heritability for larval settlement, a key life-history trait, in the
reef-building coral Orbicella faveolata. G3 5: 26392645. Image
shows newly settled juvenile coral recruits viewed under a fluorescent
microscope. Photo: Mikhail V. Matz.
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SEX CHROMOSOME TURNOVER Genetic control of sex determination
varies among species of African clawed frogs (Xenopus). Furman and Evans
demonstrate that yet another sex determination system exists in Xenopus borealis,
with properties that suggest some regions of vertebrate genomes might be
predisposed to develop sex determination functions. G3 6: 3625-3633.
Image shows metamorphosing froglets of Xenopus borealis. Photo: Adam Bewick.
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EDITORS NOTE Yeast strains for baking and brewing have been
domesticated by humans. Borneman et al. sequenced hundreds of wine
yeast strains, revealing these specialists show low genetic diversity and
high levels of inbreeding. In many cases, commercial strains from multiple
suppliers were nearly genetically identical, suggesting that there is little
potential for new strain development using existing wine yeast.
ABSTRACT Humans have been consuming wines for more than 7000 yr.
For most of this time, fermentations were presumably performed by strains of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae that naturally found their way into the fermenting
must. In contrast, most commercial wines are now produced by inoculation
with pure yeast monocultures, ensuring consistent, reliable and reproducible
fermentations, and there are now hundreds of these yeast starter cultures
commercially available. In order to thoroughly investigate the genetic diversity
that has been captured by over 50 yr of commercial wine yeast development
and domestication, whole genome sequencing has been performed on 212
strains of S. cerevisiae, including 119 commercial wine and brewing starter
strains, and wine isolates from across seven decades. Comparative genomic
analysis indicates that, despite their large numbers, commercial strains,
and wine strains in general, are extremely similar genetically, possessing all
of the hallmarks of a population bottleneck, and high levels of inbreeding.
In addition, many commercial strains from multiple suppliers are nearly
genetically identical, suggesting that the limits of effective genetic variation
within this genetically narrow group may be approaching saturation.
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GENOME REPORTS
Learn more:
http://www.g3journal.org/content/article-types#genomereport
Dont hide away useful mutant screen results in your lab notes;
submit a Mutant Screen Report and publish your findings sooner!
The Mutant Screen Report provides a convenient format for
succinctly describing the results of mutant screens. The Reports
fulfill one of G3s goals: to make useful data available to the
community in a timely fashion.
Learn more:
http://www.g3journal.org/content/article-types#mutantreport
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