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The identification of an increasing number of cancer genes is opening up unexpected scenarios in cancer genetics. When analyzed for their systemic properties, these genes show a general fragility towards pertu...
The original article was published in Journal of Biology 2009 8:30
The Drosophila Male Specific Lethal (MSL) complex contains chromatin modifying enzymes and non-coding roX RNA. It paints the male X at hundreds of bands where it acetylates histone H4 at lysine 16. This epigeneti...
Many heterotrophic organisms sequester plastids from prey algae and temporarily utilize their photosynthetic capacity. A recent article in BMC Genomics reveals that the dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata has acq...
Thousands of behavioral mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans have been studied. I suggest a set of criteria by which some genes important in the evolution of behavior might be recognized, and identify neuropeptide s...
Monoclonal antibodies with high affinity and selectivity that work on wholemount fixed tissues are valuable reagents to the cell and developmental biologist, and yet isolating them remains a long and unpredict...
Among invertebrates, specific pheromones elicit inherent (fixed) behavioural responses to coordinate social behaviours such as sexual recognition and attraction. By contrast, the much more complex social odour...
A study in the current issue of BMC Biology has identified a mouse major urinary protein as a pheromone that attracts female mice to male urine marks and induces a learned attraction to the volatile urinary odor ...
Spartin protein is involved in degradation of epidermal growth factor receptor and turnover of lipid droplets and a lack of expression of this protein is responsible for hereditary spastic paraplegia type 20 (...
A new family of natural products has been described in which cysteine, serine and threonine from ribosomally-produced peptides are converted to thiazoles, oxazoles and methyloxazoles, respectively. These metab...
Reemergence of carcinomas following chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy is not well understood, but a recent study in BMC Cancer suggests that resistance to apoptosis resulting from altered cell cycle regulation is ...
To elucidate the biological processes affected by changes in growth rate and nutrient availability, we have performed a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome responses of chemost...
A recent paper published in BMC Genomics suggests that retrotransposition may be active in the human gut parasite Entamoeba histolytica. This adds to our knowledge of the various types of repetitive elements in p...
A recent article in BMC Biology illustrates the use of a systems-biology approach to integrate data across the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome of budding yeast in order to dissect the relationship between ...
Phylostratigraphy is a method used to correlate the evolutionary origin of founder genes (that is, functional founder protein domains) of gene families with particular macroevolutionary transitions. It is base...
Important advances in the field of tissue engineering are arising from increased interest in novel biomaterial designs with bioactive components that directly influence cell behavior. Following the recent work...
After a volcano erupts, a lake may form in the cooled crater and become an isolated aquatic ecosystem. This makes fishes in crater lakes informative for understanding sympatric evolution and ecological diversi...
The Erratum to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2012 10:70
Ultra-high throughput sequencing technologies provide opportunities both for discovery of novel molecular species and for detailed comparisons of gene expression patterns. Small RNA populations are particularl...
Small interfering RNAs can trigger unintended, microRNA-like off-target effects, but the impact of these effects on functional studies has been controversial. A recent study in BMC Genomics shows that microRNA-li...
The interfacial molecular mechanisms that regulate mammalian cell growth and differentiation have important implications for biotechnology (production of cells and cell products) and medicine (tissue engineeri...
The circadian clock enhances fitness through temporal organization of plant gene expression, metabolism and physiology. Two recent studies, one in BMC Evolutionary Biology, demonstrate through phylogenetic analys...
Transcription is the first step of gene expression and is characterized by a high fidelity of RNA synthesis. During transcription, the RNA polymerase active centre discriminates against not just non-complement...
Next-generation sequencing can be used to compare transcriptomes under different conditions. A study in BMC Genomics applies this approach to investigating the effects of exposure to a range of xenobiotics on cha...
Little is known about the genetic mechanisms underlying inducible defenses. Recently, the genome of Daphnia pulex, a model organism for defense studies, has been sequenced. Building on the genome information, rec...
The phylogenetic systematics of bovin species forms a common basis for studies at multiple scales, from the level of domestication in populations to major cladogenesis. The main big-picture accomplishments of ...
Molecular interaction networks provide a window on the workings of the cell. However, combining various types of networks into one coherent large-scale dynamic model remains a formidable challenge. A recent pa...
The mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 (p38 MAPK) is activated by a number of stresses. A recent study in BMC Genomics has uncovered the early transcriptional responses to three types of stress and has demonstr...
As high-throughput technologies rapidly generate genome-scale data, it becomes increasingly important to visually integrate these data so that specific hypotheses can be formulated and tested.
Population genetic analyses of Eurasian wolves published recently in BMC Evolutionary Biology suggest that a major genetic turnover took place in Eurasian wolves after the Pleistocene. These results add to the gr...
The majority of convincingly documented cases of hybridization in angiosperms has involved genetic introgression between the parental species or formation of a hybrid species with increased ploidy; however, ho...
In mammalian cells, the integrity of the primary cilium is critical for proper regulation of the Hedgehog (Hh) signal transduction pathway. Whether or not this dependence on the primary cilium is a universal f...
A culture's icons are a window onto its soul. Few would disagree that, in the culture of molecular biology that dominated much of the life sciences for the last third of the 20th century, the dominant icon was...
Most of the significant recent advances in cancer treatment have been based on the great strides that have been made in our understanding of the underlying biology of the disease. Nevertheless, the exploitatio...
For many diseases vaccines are lacking or only partly effective. Research on protective immunity and adjuvants that generate vigorous immune responses may help generate effective vaccines against such pathogens.
The various tasks of visual systems, including course control, collision avoidance and the detection of small objects, require at the neuronal level the dendritic integration and subsequent processing of many ...
Male sexually selected vocalisations generally contain both individuality and quality cues that are crucial in intra- as well as inter-sexual communication. As individuality is a fixed feature whereas male phe...
One of the four principal categories of cell-cell junctions that hold together and shape distinct tissues and organs in vertebrates, adherens junctions (AJs) form cell-cell contacts that connect transmembrane ...
Neoplastic overgrowth depends on the cooperation of several mutations ultimately leading to major rearrangements in cellular behaviour. Precancerous cells are often removed by cell death from normal tissues in...
Tiny marine animals that complete their life cycle in the total absence of light and oxygen are reported by Roberto Danovaro and colleagues in this issue of BMC Biology. These fascinating animals are new members ...
The sediments of a deep-sea hypersaline and sulfidic Mediterranean basin have yielded an unexpected discovery, the first multicellular animals living entirely without oxygen. Reported by Danovaro et al. in BMC Bi...
Several unicellular organisms (prokaryotes and protozoa) can live under permanently anoxic conditions. Although a few metazoans can survive temporarily in the absence of oxygen, it is believed that multi-cellu...
Among songbirds, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is an excellent model system for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying complex behaviours such as vocal communication, learning and social interacti...
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