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Volume 32 Issue 3, November 2002

Cover art by: Sam Maitin Referred by Larry A. Donoso (of Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia)

Volume 32 Issue 3

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Editorial

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News & Views

  • The genome sequence of the bacterial endosymbiont Wigglesworthia glossinidia that resides in the gut of the tsetse fly has been determined. Because the tsetse fly relies on this bacterium for fertility and nutrition, this information may be useful in reducing fly populations and halting the spread of the deadly African sleeping disease.

    • Brendan W. Wren
    News & Views

  • The long-presumed relationship between transcriptional activity of genes and their replication early in S-phase was challenged when a whole-genome analysis of replication timing in budding yeast found no such relationship. A new study reports the first genome-wide comparison of replication timing and gene expression in a multicellular organism, revealing a strong correlation between the two. This difference may reflect levels of nuclear organization that are important in the context of tissue-specific gene regulation.

    • David M. Gilbert
    News & Views

  • Photolyases are enzymes involved in the repair of ultraviolet light–induced DNA damage when activated by light absorption. The generation of photolyase transgenic mice now suggests that an improved understanding of the mechanisms of skin damage and carcinogenesis induced by sunlight is in the offing.

    • Carlos F.M. Menck
    News & Views

  • A new study of ribosomal RNA gene silencing in the mouse provides clues as to how repressive chromatin states become established. At center stage is a chromatin remodeling complex that recruits DNA methyltransferase and histone deacetylase activities to the gene promoter, initiating a process that includes de novo DNA methylation, methylation of histone H3 on Lys9 and heterochromatin protein binding.

    • Craig S. Pikaard
    • Richard J. Lawrence
    News & Views

  • Research on homeobox genes has shown them to have crucial roles in many developmental processes. A new study on the homeobox transcription factor, ARX, offers insights into neuronal migration and, surprisingly, testis development.

    • Orly Reiner
    News & Views
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Book Review

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Commentary

  • We would like to be able to predict how genomes are folded in the cell from the primary DNA sequence. A model for the three-dimensional structure of all genomes is presented; it is based on the structure of the bacterial nucleoid, where RNA polymerases cluster and loop the DNA. Loops appear and disappear as polymerases initiate and terminate, but the microscopic structure is 'self-organizing' and, to some extent, predictable. At the macroscopic level, transcriptional activity drives pairing between homologous sequences, inactivity allows genome compaction, and the segregation machinery orients whole chromosomes.

    • Peter R. Cook
    Commentary
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Correspondence

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Brief Communication

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Article

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Letter

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Corrigendum

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