Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 821 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2665

Authors: Urban Lendahl, Kian Leong Lee, Henry Yang & Lorenz Poellinger

The sensing of oxygen levels and maintenance of oxygen homeostasis is crucial for cells. The hypoxic-sensitive regulation of gene expression allows information about the oxygen status to be converted into appropriate cellular responses. Although there is a core transcriptional pathway, the signalling cascade can be

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 872 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2670

Authors: Robert Plomin, Claire M. A. Haworth & Oliver S. P. Davis

After drifting apart for 100 years, the two worlds of genetics — quantitative genetics and molecular genetics — are finally coming together in genome-wide association (GWA) research, which shows that the heritability of complex traits and common disorders is due to multiple genes of small

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 859 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2697

Authors: Shankar Mukherji & Alexander van Oudenaarden

An important aim of synthetic biology is to uncover the design principles of natural biological systems through the rational design of gene and protein circuits. Here, we highlight how the process of engineering biological systems — from synthetic promoters to the control of cell–cell interactions

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 878 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2700

Authors: Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, James Ellis, Konrad Hochedlinger & Shinya Yamanaka

No-one can have failed to notice the splash that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have made in the few years since somatic cells were first reprogrammed to pluripotency. But what is their real promise, where should research efforts be focused, and are we at a

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 816 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2701

Author: Meera Swami

Understanding chromosome folding is crucial for understanding the relationships between chromatin structure, gene activity and cellular function. Although recent technological developments, such as chromosome conformation capture (3C), have allowed the investigation of long-range interactions associated with specific loci, they do not allow unbiased genome-wide assessment

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 818 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2702

Author: Mary Muers

The classical view of DNA methylation in mammals is that methylation of cytosine occurs in the context of CG dinucleotides, and that methylation patterns are established during embryogenesis and maintained in somatic cells, which enables the long-term stable silencing of transcription. Two recent papers shake

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 818 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2704

Author: Tanita Casci

Nature has a startling number of ways in which to establish differences between the sexes, and now a couple more can be added. In melons, an integrated model of sex determination — based on epigenetic repression mediated by a transposon — has been proposed to

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 820 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2705

Author: Meera Swami

Speciation occurs when populations accumulate genetic differences that lead them to become reproductively isolated. Although many loci involved in reproductive incompatibility have been identified, the underlying biological mechanisms have remained elusive. Now, the first steps of a mechanism for hybrid sterility have been characterized in

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 815 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2706

Author: Tanita Casci

Two studies that combine experimental evolution and genome resequencing have provided new insights into bacterial adaptation. One study reveals unexpected relationships between new mutations and their adaptive significance, whereas the other gives a mechanistic account of the evolution of rapid phenotype switching.Important questions about

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 820 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2708

Author: Tanita Casci

A search for DNA–protein interactions has unexpectedly pulled out over 300 human proteins that are known for other biological roles. By highlighting the multitasking function of many human proteins, this work provides a new perspective on the molecular basis of organismal complexity.The study used

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 816 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2709

Author: Mary Muers

Size can be controlled at many levels, including the size a cell attains before it divides and the number of cells that form a complete organ. Therefore, as shown by two recent papers, lessons about growth regulation can be learnt both from studies of intrinsic

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 883 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2715

Author: Robert Plomin, Claire M. A. Haworth & Oliver S. P. Davis

Nature Rev. Genet.10, 872–878 (2009)An incorrect version of this article was previously published online (publication date 27 October 2009). In the second paragraph of the 'Identifying quantitative mechanisms' section on page 874 in this article, the

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 845 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2681

Authors: Rolf Zeller, Javier López-Ríos & Aimée Zuniga

The limb bud is of paradigmatic value to understanding vertebrate organogenesis. Recent genetic analysis in mice has revealed the existence of a largely self-regulatory limb bud signalling system that involves many of the pathways that are known to regulate morphogenesis. These findings contrast with the

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 833 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2683

Author: Alain Jacquier

Over the past few years, techniques have been developed that have allowed the study of transcriptomes without bias from previous genome annotations, which has led to the discovery of a plethora of unexpected RNAs that have no obvious coding capacities. There are many different kinds

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 883 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2710

Author: Thomas M. Williams & Sean B. Carroll

Nature Reviews Genetics10, 797–804 (2009)The image in Figure 1d of this article was incorrectly attributed to C. Lambert, whereas the source of the figure is actually unknown. The authors apologize for the error.

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 816 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2711

Author: Louisa Flintoft

Shortening of telomeres to a critical length triggers a DNA-damage response that contributes to ageing. A new study using a mouse model of accelerated telomere shortening reveals specific transcriptomic and epigenetic changes that provide clues to how telomere shortening is linked to ageing.The Terc

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 817 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2713

Sequencing technologies

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 819 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2714

Human disease

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 813 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrg2716

Certain technologies have changed the face of genetic research — notable examples being DNA cloning, Sanger sequencing and PCR. Now, next-generation sequencing is making waves that are being felt across genetics and genomics.As sequencing costs continue to fall, we will see a rapid increase