Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

About: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a nonprofit organization based out in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Genome. The organization has 3772 authors who have published 6603 publications receiving 1010873 citations. The organization is also known as: CSHL.

Four mating-type genes control sexual differentiation in the fission yeast.

Abstract: The mating-type region of fission yeast consists of three components, mat1, mat2-P and mat3-M, each separated by 15 kb. Cell-type is determined by the alternate allele present at mat1, either P in an h+ or M in an h- cell. mat2-P and mat3-M serve as donors of information that is transposed to mat1 during a switch of mating type. We have determined the nucleotide sequence of each component of mat. The P and M specific regions are 1104 and 1128 bp, respectively, and bounded by sequences common to each mating-type cassette (H1; 59 bp and H2; 135 bp). A third sequence is present at mat2-P and mat3-M but absent at mat1 (H3; 57 bp), and may be involved in transcriptional repression of these cassettes. mat1-P and mat1-M each encode two genes (Pc; 118 amino acids, Pi; 159 amino acids, Mc; 181 amino acids and Mi; 42 amino acids). Introduction of opal or frame-shift mutations into the open-reading-frame of each gene revealed that Pc and Mc are necessary and sufficient for mating and confer an h+ or h- mating type respectively. All four genes are required for meiotic competence in an h+/h- diploid. The transcription of each mat gene is strongly influenced by nutritional conditions and full induction was observed only in nitrogen-free medium. The predicted product of the Pi gene contains a region of homology with the homeobox sequence, suggesting that this gene encodes a DNA binding protein that directly regulates the expression of other genes.

Creating a bioinformatics nation

Abstract: A web-services model will allow biological data to be fully exploited During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Italy was fragmented into dozens of rival city-states controlled by such legendary families as the Estes, Viscontis and Medicis Though picturesque, this political fragmentation was ultimately damaging to science and commerce because of the lack of standardization in everything from weights and measures to the tax code to the currency to the very dialects people spoke A fragmented and technologically weak society was vulnerable to conquest, and from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries Italy was dominated by invading powers The old city-states of Italy are an apt metaphor for bioinformatics today The field is dominated by rival groups, each promoting its web sites, services and data formats Unarguably, this environment of creative chaos has greatly enriched the field But it has also created a significant hindrance to researchers wishing to exploit the wealth of genome data to its fullest Despite its shaky beginning, the nation of Italy was eventually forged through a combination of violent and diplomatic efforts It is now a strong and stable component of a larger economic unit, the European Union, with which it shares a common currency, a common set of weights and measures, and a common set of rules for national and international commerce My hope is that bioinformatics will one day achieve the same degree of strength and stability by adopting a universal code of conduct along the lines I propose here