Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Genetics & Development in 2011"

TL;DR: This review focuses on the recent progress in elucidating the structure of the 30-nm chromatin fiber and discusses the structural plasticity/dynamics and epigenetic inheritance of higher-order chromatin and the roles of chromatin higher- order organization in eukaryotic gene regulation.

TL;DR: Findings that senescent cells secrete growth factors, proteases and cytokines provide potential mechanisms by which cellular senescence might contribute to the diverse, and seemingly incongruent, processes of tumor suppression, tumor promotion, tissue repair, and aging.

TL;DR: Improvements in improved methods for reconstitution of recombinant Mediator subassemblies are enabling more in-depth analyses of basic features of the mechanisms by which Mediator interacts with and controls the activity of pol II and the general initiation factors.

TL;DR: Recent studies have paradoxically shown that apoptosis induction can under some circumstances drive tumor formation, perhaps by inducing compensatory proliferation under conditions of cellular stress, underline the complexity of BCL-2 protein function in oncogenesis.

TL;DR: This review provides an overview of the basic aspects of splicing regulation and highlights recent progress in understanding the role of RNA secondary structure in this process.

TL;DR: Genetic analysis of developmental timing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans identified two evolutionarily conserved microRNAs, lin-4/mir-125 and let-7, that regulate cell fate progression and differentiation in C. elegans cell lineages.

TL;DR: A better understanding of how autophagy modulates cell metabolism under various cellular stresses and the consequences of this on tumorigenesis will help develop better therapeutic strategies against cancer prevention and treatment.

TL;DR: The targeting of key HIF-1-mediated steps, responsible for exacerbated glycolysis and pHi-control, and of the 'guardian of cellular energy' AMP-kinase should offer novel therapeutic opportunities to fight cancer.

TL;DR: A review of recent studies that have extended knowledge of the mechanisms underlying dystroglycanopathies and have further characterised this patient population is focused on.

TL;DR: This review will highlight recent insights into known pathways essential for tumorigenesis and discuss exciting new pathways for therapeutic intervention.

TL;DR: Understanding the molecular mechanisms of how tumor cells respond to TGFβ and switch their response to this cytokine during disease progression is vital for both the development and the informed use of potentially powerful TGF β targeted therapeutics.

TL;DR: Genome-wide analysis indicates that cohesin directly regulates transcription of genes involved in cell proliferation, pluripotency, and differentiation through multiple mechanisms.

TL;DR: A spectrum of neurological disorders characterized by abnormal neuronal migration, differentiation, and axon guidance and maintenance have recently been attributed to missense and splice-site mutations in the genes that encode α-tubulin and β- Tubulin isotypes, providing novel paradigms for understanding the biological functions of microtubules and their core components in normal health and disease.

TL;DR: Key novel molecular players that induce vessel normalization of the tumor vasculature are overview, which improves cytotoxic drug delivery and efficacy and offers unprecedented opportunities for anti-cancer treatment.

TL;DR: This review attempts to provide a conceptual framework for the study of dormancy, which may guide clinical and experimental research.

TL;DR: First direct links between miRNA dysfunction and synaptic pathologies are emerging, raising the interest in these molecules as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in neurological disorders.

TL;DR: Reprogramming of somatic cells provides a platform to investigate the role of chromatin-based factors in establishing and maintaining pluripotency and there is a genome-wide increase in the abundance of repressive histone modifications.

TL;DR: The more the authors learn about the cellular biological roles of genes that are essential for cortical development, the more they realize that these functions map onto molecular processes, but not so cleanly onto anatomical processes.

TL;DR: Neuroimaging-based intermediate phenotypes have emerged as particularly promising because they map risk associated gene effects onto physiological processes in brain that are altered in patients and in their healthy relatives.

TL;DR: Recent advances include identification of RNA-binding proteins that function as specificity factors to direct the maternal degradation machinery to its target mRNAs; small RNAs-most notably microRNAs-that function as components of the zygotically encoded activity; signaling pathways that trigger production and/or activation of the clearance mechanism in early embryos; and mechanisms for spatial control of transcript clearance.

TL;DR: An overview of where light sheet microscopy branches out, explores new areas, and becomes more specialized is given to give a new challenge to existing data and image processing tools.

TL;DR: Comparative studies in insects have found that alternative splicing is reiteratively used in evolution to control expression of the key sex-determining genes.

TL;DR: The environmental factors that have been shown to trigger differentiation processes, as well as the network motifs that enable the co-existence of persistent and nonpersistent cells within genetically uniform populations are reviewed.

TL;DR: While NMD per se affects the embryogenesis of all animals, it is required to avoid embryonic lethality in only some animals, and the critical roles of many NMD factors in other metabolic pathways undoubtedly also contribute to embryonic development if not viability.

TL;DR: The past history of epilepsy genetics is reviewed, a field that has traditionally included studies of pedigrees with epilepsy caused by defects in ion channels and neurotransmitters and that has challenged the notion that single genes produce single disorders.

TL;DR: Work at the interface of chromatin and RNA biology has revealed unexpected molecular links between histone modifications, the transcription machinery, and non-coding RNAs in the determination of alternative splicing patterns.

TL;DR: Recent work on the nature of the autocatalytic process in budding yeast and on the question of why polarized cells only develop a single 'front' are reviewed.

TL;DR: What is known about assembly of the fetal meninges is discussed, the role of meningeal-derived proteins in mouse and human brain development is reviewed, and the potential that defects inMeningeal development may underlie certain congenital brain abnormalities in humans should be considered.

TL;DR: The new AD genetic landscape suggests that the common and late-onset forms of the disease are associated with a defect in peripheral Aβ peptide clearance, implying that the amyloid cascade hypothesis could be relevant not only in the AD monogenic forms.

TL;DR: Recent advances made both in the genome-wide characterization of enhancers and in the identification of new classes of long ncRNAs are reviewed, and the functional overlap of these two classes of regulatory elements is discussed.