October 2008

The rate of mutation in a region of the mitochondrial genome of the Adélie penguin was calculated by comparing DNA from a large number of mothers to that of their chicks. To calculate the rate of evolution, DNA was extracted from ancient bones of Adélie penguins and compared to that of present day individuals (see Millar et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000209). The bones, which were up to 37,000 years old, were found under present day colonies. The rate of mutation and evolution in Adélie penguins are similar; however, both appear to be proceeding faster than predicted.

Image Credit: Photo of an Adélie penguin adult and its two chicks by Emeritus Professor Euan Young, Auckland University.

Interview

Curling Up with a Story: An Interview with Sean Carroll

Jane Gitschier

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000229

Perspectives

Genetical Genomics: Spotlight on QTL Hotspots

Rainer Breitling, Yang Li, Bruno M. Tesson, Jingyuan Fu, Chunlei Wu, Tim Wiltshire, Alice Gerrits, Leonid V. Bystrykh, Gerald de Haan, Andrew I. Su, Ritsert C. Jansen

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000232

Leaving the Past Behind

E. Jean Finnegan, Emma Whitelaw

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000248

Research Articles

Context-Dependent Requirement for dE2F during Oncogenic Proliferation

Brandon N. Nicolay, Maxim V. Frolov

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000205

Zebrafish eda and edar Mutants Reveal Conserved and Ancestral Roles of Ectodysplasin Signaling in Vertebrates

Matthew P. Harris, Nicolas Rohner, Heinz Schwarz, Simon Perathoner, Peter Konstantinidis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000206

A Myo6 Mutation Destroys Coordination between the Myosin Heads, Revealing New Functions of Myosin VI in the Stereocilia of Mammalian Inner Ear Hair Cells

Ronna Hertzano, Ella Shalit, Agnieszka K. Rzadzinska, Amiel A. Dror, Lin Song, Uri Ron, Joshua T. Tan, Alina Starovolsky Shitrit, Helmut Fuchs, Tama Hasson, Nir Ben-Tal, H. Lee Sweeney, Martin Hrabe de Angelis, Karen P. Steel, Karen B. Avraham

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000207

Mutability and Importance of a Hypermutable Cell Subpopulation that Produces Stress-Induced Mutants in Escherichia coli

Caleb Gonzalez, Lilach Hadany, Rebecca G. Ponder, Mellanie Price, P. J. Hastings, Susan M. Rosenberg

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000208

Mutation and Evolutionary Rates in Adélie Penguins from the Antarctic

Craig D. Millar, Andrew Dodd, Jennifer Anderson, Gillian C. Gibb, Peter A. Ritchie, Carlo Baroni, Michael D. Woodhams, Michael D. Hendy, David M. Lambert

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000209

High-Throughput Phenotypic Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Membrane Transport Genes

Daniel A. Johnson, Sasha G. Tetu, Katherine Phillippy, Joan Chen, Qinghu Ren, Ian T. Paulsen

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000211

Time-Lapse Analysis and Mathematical Characterization Elucidate Novel Mechanisms Underlying Muscle Morphogenesis

Chelsi J. Snow, Michelle Goody, Meghan W. Kelly, Emma C. Oster, Robert Jones, Andre Khalil, Clarissa A. Henry

PLOS Genetics: published October 3, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000219

Efficient and Accurate Construction of Genetic Linkage Maps from the Minimum Spanning Tree of a Graph

Yonghui Wu, Prasanna R. Bhat, Timothy J. Close, Stefano Lonardi

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000212

A TRPV Channel Modulates C. elegans Neurosecretion, Larval Starvation Survival, and Adult Lifespan

Brian H. Lee, Kaveh Ashrafi

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000213

High-Resolution Mapping of Expression-QTLs Yields Insight into Human Gene Regulation

Jean-Baptiste Veyrieras, Sridhar Kudaravalli, Su Yeon Kim, Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis, Yoav Gilad, Matthew Stephens, Jonathan K. Pritchard

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000214

Cooperation of Sumoylated Chromosomal Proteins in rDNA Maintenance

Yoshimitsu Takahashi, Stanimir Dulev, Xianpeng Liu, Natalie Jasmin Hiller, Xiaolan Zhao, Alexander Strunnikov

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000215

A Position Effect on the Heritability of Epigenetic Silencing

Jaswinder Singh, Michael Freeling, Damon Lisch

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000216

Drosophila Kismet Regulates Histone H3 Lysine 27 Methylation and Early Elongation by RNA Polymerase II

Shrividhya Srinivasan, Kristel M. Dorighi, John W. Tamkun

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000217

Genetic Association and Expression Studies Indicate a Role of Toll-Like Receptor 8 in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Sonia Davila, Martin L. Hibberd, Ranjeeta Hari Dass, Hazel E. E. Wong, Edhyana Sahiratmadja, Carine Bonnard, Bachti Alisjahbana, Jeffrey S. Szeszko, Yanina Balabanova, Francis Drobniewski, Reinout van Crevel, Esther van de Vosse, Sergey Nejentsev, Tom H. M. Ottenhoff, Mark Seielstad

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000218

Identification and Replication of Three Novel Myopia Common Susceptibility Gene Loci on Chromosome 3q26 using Linkage and Linkage Disequilibrium Mapping

Toby Andrew, Nikolas Maniatis, Francis Carbonaro, S. H. Melissa Liew, Winston Lau, Tim D. Spector, Christopher J. Hammond

PLOS Genetics: published October 10, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000220

Mechanisms Underlying Hypoxia Tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster: hairy as a Metabolic Switch

Dan Zhou, Jin Xue, James C. K. Lai, Nicholas J. Schork, Kevin P. White, Gabriel G. Haddad

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000221

The HLH-6 Transcription Factor Regulates C. elegans Pharyngeal Gland Development and Function

Ryan B. Smit, Ralf Schnabel, Jeb Gaudet

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000222

Variations in Stress Sensitivity and Genomic Expression in Diverse S. cerevisiae Isolates

Daniel J. Kvitek, Jessica L. Will, Audrey P. Gasch

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000223

Regulatory Network Analyses Reveal Genome-Wide Potentiation of LIF Signaling by Glucocorticoids and Define an Innate Cell Defense Response

David Langlais, Catherine Couture, Aurélio Balsalobre, Jacques Drouin

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000224

Effects of Aneuploidy on Genome Structure, Expression, and Interphase Organization in Arabidopsis thaliana

Bruno Huettel, David P. Kreil, Marjori Matzke, Antonius J. M. Matzke

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000226

Depletion of Human Histone H1 Variants Uncovers Specific Roles in Gene Expression and Cell Growth

Mónica Sancho, Erika Diani, Miguel Beato, Albert Jordan

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000227

Condensin II Resolves Chromosomal Associations to Enable Anaphase I Segregation in Drosophila Male Meiosis

Tom A. Hartl, Sarah J. Sweeney, Peter J. Knepler, Giovanni Bosco

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000228

Diverse Splicing Patterns of Exonized Alu Elements in Human Tissues

Lan Lin, Shihao Shen, Anne Tye, James J. Cai, Peng Jiang, Beverly L. Davidson, Yi Xing

PLOS Genetics: published October 17, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000225

The Anticonvulsant Ethosuximide Disrupts Sensory Function to Extend C. elegans Lifespan

James J. Collins, Kimberley Evason, Christopher L. Pickett, Daniel L. Schneider, Kerry Kornfeld

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000230

Predicting Unobserved Phenotypes for Complex Traits from Whole-Genome SNP Data

Sang Hong Lee, Julius H. J. van der Werf, Ben J. Hayes, Michael E. Goddard, Peter M. Visscher

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000231

Evolution and Dynamics of Regulatory Architectures Controlling Polymyxin B Resistance in Enteric Bacteria

Alexander Y. Mitrophanov, Mollie W. Jewett, Tricia J. Hadley, Eduardo A. Groisman

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000233

Genetic Networks Controlling Structural Outcome of Glucosinolate Activation across Development

Adam M. Wentzell, Ian Boeye, Zhiyong Zhang, Daniel J. Kliebenstein

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000234

ZHP-3 Acts at Crossovers to Couple Meiotic Recombination with Synaptonemal Complex Disassembly and Bivalent Formation in C. elegans

Needhi Bhalla, David J. Wynne, Verena Jantsch, Abby F. Dernburg

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000235

Two Pathways Recruit Telomerase to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Telomeres

Angela Chan, Jean-Baptiste Boulé, Virginia A. Zakian

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000236

Numt-Mediated Double-Strand Break Repair Mitigates Deletions during Primate Genome Evolution

Einat Hazkani-Covo, Shay Covo

PLOS Genetics: published October 24, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000237

The Novel Mouse Mutation Oblivion Inactivates the PMCA2 Pump and Causes Progressive Hearing Loss

Sarah L. Spiden, Mario Bortolozzi, Francesca Di Leva, Martin Hrabé de Angelis, Helmut Fuchs, Dmitry Lim, Saida Ortolano, Neil J. Ingham, Marisa Brini, Ernesto Carafoli, Fabio Mammano, Karen P. Steel

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000238

Genetic and Linguistic Coevolution in Northern Island Melanesia

Keith Hunley, Michael Dunn, Eva Lindström, Ger Reesink, Angela Terrill, Meghan E. Healy, George Koki, Françoise R. Friedlaender, Jonathan S. Friedlaender

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000239

Mutation of the Zebrafish Nucleoporin elys Sensitizes Tissue Progenitors to Replication Stress

Gangarao Davuluri, Weilong Gong, Shamila Yusuff, Kristin Lorent, Manimegalai Muthumani, Amy C. Dolan, Michael Pack

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000240

Essential Role of Chromatin Remodeling Protein Bptf in Early Mouse Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cells

Joseph Landry, Alexei A. Sharov, Yulan Piao, Lioudmila V. Sharova, Hua Xiao, Eileen Southon, Jennifer Matta, Lino Tessarollo, Ying E. Zhang, Minoru S. H. Ko, Michael R. Kuehn, Terry P. Yamaguchi, Carl Wu

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000241

Genomewide Analysis of PRC1 and PRC2 Occupancy Identifies Two Classes of Bivalent Domains

Manching Ku, Richard P. Koche, Esther Rheinbay, Eric M. Mendenhall, Mitsuhiro Endoh, Tarjei S. Mikkelsen, Aviva Presser, Chad Nusbaum, Xiaohui Xie, Andrew S. Chi, Mazhar Adli, Simon Kasif, Leon M. Ptaszek, Chad A. Cowan, Eric S. Lander, Haruhiko Koseki, Bradley E. Bernstein

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000242

Adaptive Copy Number Evolution in Malaria Parasites

Shalini Nair, Becky Miller, Marion Barends, Anchalee Jaidee, Jigar Patel, Mayfong Mayxay, Paul Newton, François Nosten, Michael T. Ferdig, Tim J. C. Anderson

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000243

Modifier Effects between Regulatory and Protein-Coding Variation

Antigone S. Dimas, Barbara E. Stranger, Claude Beazley, Robert D. Finn, Catherine E. Ingle, Matthew S. Forrest, Matthew E. Ritchie, Panos Deloukas, Simon Tavaré, Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis

PLOS Genetics: published October 31, 2008 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000244

Cover

Does mutation drive DNA evolution?

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Perspectives

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