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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Genetic compensation: A phenomenon in search of mechanisms.

TLDR
This review revisits studies reporting genetic compensation in higher eukaryotes and outlines possible molecular mechanisms, which may include both transcriptional and posttranscriptional processes.
Abstract
Several recent studies in a number of model systems including zebrafish, Arabidopsis, and mouse have revealed phenotypic differences between knockouts (i.e., mutants) and knockdowns (e.g., antisense-treated animals). These differences have been attributed to a number of reasons including off-target effects of the antisense reagents. An alternative explanation was recently proposed based on a zebrafish study reporting that genetic compensation was observed in egfl7 mutant but not knockdown animals. Dosage compensation was first reported in Drosophila in 1932, and genetic compensation in response to a gene knockout was first reported in yeast in 1969. Since then, genetic compensation has been documented many times in a number of model organisms; however, our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms remains limited. In this review, we revisit studies reporting genetic compensation in higher eukaryotes and outline possible molecular mechanisms, which may include both transcriptional and posttranscriptional processes.

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Journal Article

Genetic compensation induced by deleterious mutations but not gene knockdowns

TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that egfl7 mutants do not show any obvious phenotypes while animals injected with egfl 7 morpholino (morphants) exhibit severe vascular defects, indicating that the activation of a compensatory network to buffer against deleterious mutations was not observed after translational or transcriptional knockdown.
Journal ArticleDOI

IGF-Binding Proteins: Why Do They Exist and Why Are There So Many?

TL;DR: The emerging explanation that many IGFBP functions have evolved to allow the targeted adjustment of IGF signaling under stressful or irregular conditions, which would likely not be revealed in a standard laboratory setting are explored.
Journal ArticleDOI

Highly Efficient CRISPR-Cas9-Based Methods for Generating Deletion Mutations and F0 Embryos that Lack Gene Function in Zebrafish

TL;DR: Supernumerary guanine nucleotides at the 5' ends of single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) account for diminished CRISPR-Cas9 activity in zebrafish embryos and heritable deletion mutations of at least 50 kbp can be readily induced using pairs of duplex guide RNPs targeted to a single chromosome.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Genome-wide consequences of deleting any single gene

TL;DR: Mutation of any single gene may cause a genomic imbalance, with consequences sufficient to drive adaptive genetic changes, which complicates genetic analyses but is a logical consequence of losing a functional unit originally acquired under pressure during evolution.
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Functional redundancy of the muscle-specific transcription factors Myf5 and myogenin

TL;DR: It is reported here that mice homozygous for this myogenin gene knock-in developed a normal rib cage and were viable, therefore demonstrating functional redundancy of Myf5 and hisogenin for rib formation.
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New possible roles for aquaporin-4 in astrocytes: cell cytoskeleton and functional relationship with connexin43

TL;DR: Aquaporin‐4 KD in human astrocytes resulted in a morphological phenotype similar to that found in rat, and the strong down‐regulation of connexin43 (Cx43) with a concomitant reduction in cell coupling while no major alterations in Cx43 expression were found inRat and human cells demonstrate a primary role of this water channel in the cytoskeleton changes observed.
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Loss-of-function genetic tools for animal models: cross-species and cross-platform differences.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe parameters for choosing the optimal combination of method and system, and for interpreting phenotypes within the constraints of each method, taking into account the biological process that is targeted by each method.
Journal ArticleDOI

Post-transcriptional operons and regulons co-ordinating gene expression.

TL;DR: Data is examined supporting the role of post-transcriptional operons and regulons in organizing genetic information and co-ordinating expression of functionally related transcripts from their origins at transcription to their subsequent splicing, export and translation.
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