Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Genetics & Development in 1999"

TL;DR: The many new examples of human genes derived from single transposon insertions highlight the large contribution of selfish DNA to genomic evolution.

TL;DR: Observations of retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptors suggest that ligand-dependent recruitment of chromatin-remodeling activity serves as a general mechanism underlying the switch of nuclear receptors frombeing transcriptionally repressive to being transcriptionally active.

TL;DR: Eukaryotic mismatch repair (MMR) has been shown to require two different heterodimeric complexes of MutS-related proteins: MSH 2-MSH3 and MSH2- MSH6, and alternative models have been proposed for how these MSH complexes function in MMR.

TL;DR: Once activated, β-catenin most likely promotes tumor progression through its persistent interaction with one or more of its numerous downstream targets.

TL;DR: Data suggest that DNA methylation can pattern chromatin modification, and that inhibition of histone deacetylases by specific inhibitors can reactivate endogenous genes or reporter constructs previously silenced by DNA methylations.

TL;DR: Accumulating evidence suggests that deregulation of acetylase and deacetylase activity plays a causative role in the generation of cancer.

TL;DR: Two genes comprising overlapping reading frames encoding p16(INK4a) and p19(ARF) have been discovered at this locus and, remarkably, both play an important role in regulating cell growth, survival and senescence.

TL;DR: Prior to sister-chromatid separation, the spindle checkpoint inhibits cell-cycle progression in response to a signal generated by mitotic spindle damage or by chromosomes that have not attached to microtubules.

TL;DR: The form and content of the ancestral proto-mitochondrial and proto-chloroplast genomes are becoming clearer but unusual patterns of organellar genome structure and organization continue to be discovered.

TL;DR: The recent discovery of myostatin suggests that negative regulation of tissue growth may be an important mechanism for controlling skeletal muscle mass and raises the possibility that growth inhibitors may also be involved in regulating the size of other tissues.

TL;DR: Use of the immunosuppressant rapamycin, a bacterial macrolide, has been instructive in identifying potential signaling components downstream of TOR, leading to the observation that both protein synthesis and turnover are under TOR control.

TL;DR: In the case of colon cancer, induction of the p21 gene by histone hyperacetylation may be a mechanism by which dietary fiber prevents carcinogenesis.

TL;DR: Improvements in fluorescence microscopy have allowed us to explore the three-dimensional organization of the nucleus in ways that were impossible ten years ago, revealing subdomains or compartments within the nucleus defined by their enrichments of subsets of factors.

TL;DR: The basic principles of gene degradation and elimination that are being explored in Rickettsia are likely to be of major importance for the understanding of how microbial genomes evolve.

TL;DR: The Selfish Operon Model postulates that the organization of bacterial genes into operons is beneficial to the constituent genes in that proximity allows horizontal cotransfer of all genes required for a selectable phenotype.

TL;DR: New results in Drosophila have identified an insulator with a proven boundary function essential for development and a connection between the activity of some insulators and Drosophile trithorax-Group and Polycomb-Group genes is suggested.

TL;DR: Nucleosomes have long been known to inhibit DNA transactions on chromosomes and a remarkable abundance of multiprotein complexes that either enhance or relieve this inhibition have been described.

TL;DR: Structural analyses of the PAS domain provide insight into how this interaction domain can act as ligand-binding environmental sensor and signal transducer.

TL;DR: Lunatic Fringe has been shown to be required for vertebrate somitogenesis, where it appears to act as a crucial link between a molecular clock and the regulation of Notch signaling.

TL;DR: Experiments in Drosophila on insulators that block enhancer-promoter interactions, interchromosomal activation, and mutants deficient in long-range activation are consistent with models in which facilitator factors that function between enhancers and promoters bring them into physical proximity of each other.

TL;DR: The Cadherin-dependent positioning of the oocyte creates an anterior-posterior polarity that is transmitted to the embryo through the localisation and localised translation of bicoid, oskar, and nanos mRNA.

TL;DR: Recent developments have also refined the timing of the gametic imprints and further defined the mechanism by which DNA methyltransferases confer allelic methylation patterns.

TL;DR: Genetic studies in Drosophila have linked the JNK pathway to the decapentaplegic and Frizzled pathways in these processes, suggesting a high degree of integrative signaling during epithelial morphogenesis.

TL;DR: In many immortal cell lines, telomere maintenance is provided by the action of the ribonucleoprotein enzyme complex, telomerase, but there is evidence that these cells maintain their telomeres by an alternative mechanism.

TL;DR: Recent developments regarding the composition and function of RNA polymerase II complexes suggest that the concept of the holoenzyme, as defined in bacteria, might not be relevant to eukaryotes.

TL;DR: The Ral guanine nucleotide exchange factors are direct targets of Ras, providing a mechanism for Ral activation by extracellular signals, and contribute to cellular transformation induced by oncogenic Ras through an Erk-independent mechanism which may involve activation of transcription.

TL;DR: Genome sequences and new algorithms have begun to make systematic computational screens for noncoding RNA genes possible, and active research areas include small nucleolar RNAs, antisense riboregulator RNAs and RNAs involved in X-dosage compensation.

TL;DR: Biochemical and genetic studies are revealing a network of interactions between eukaryotic translation initiation factors, further refining or redefining perceptions of their function.

TL;DR: Prokaryotes are sophisticated and eukaryotes, which retain many features of an RNA-world, appear primitive, while the last universal common ancestor may have been mesophilic and could have had many feature of the eUKaryote genome, but its cytology is unknown.

TL;DR: The murine and human LCR may functionally be different or there may be a different interpretation of the results, as well as the findings and conclusions that have been obtained with the human beta-globin LCR.