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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

The histone code regulating expression of the imprinted mouse Igf2r gene.

TL;DR: A model of the histone code for Igf2r, and Air imprinting is proposed that defines histone modifications specific for the putative gametic imprint DMR2, and explains the tissue-specific imprinting of Igf 2r in the mouse and the absence of IGF2R imprinting in human.
Journal ArticleDOI

Allele-specific histone modifications regulate expression of the Dlk1-Gtl2 imprinted domain

TL;DR: Interactions between DNA methylation and histone acetylation are involved in regulating the imprinting of the Dlk1-Gtl2 locus, and further analysis of these animals shows that the loss of allele-specific methylation is accompanied by increased paternal histone methylation at the Gtl2 DMR.
Journal ArticleDOI

9 Mechanism of Translation Initiation in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

TL;DR: Genetic and biochemical analysis of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is helping to elucidate molecular mechanisms in the translation initiation pathway, and genetic studies in yeast provide the best opportunity to establish the physiological relevance of conclusions reached using cell-free systems.
Journal ArticleDOI

A specific role for cyclin D1 in mammary gland development.

TL;DR: Cyclin D1 seems to play a critical role in pregnancy-induced proliferation of mammary epithelium and participates in neoplasia, as the majority of human mammary carcinomas contain elevated levels of this cyclin.
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