Articles tagged Chromosomes
(37 results)

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce that Barbara Meyer is the recipient of the 2018 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, which is awarded for lifetime achievement in genetics. This honor is given in recognition of her groundbreaking work on chromosome behaviors that govern gene expression, development, and heredity. Meyer’s studies of how…

In the 1980s, scientists first noticed circles of DNA interspersed among the normally linear chromosomes of eukaryotic nuclei. Little is known about these molecules, which are called extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA). Variation in eccDNA appears to be biologically significant; development of an organism often comes with increased numbers of eccDNA, for example, and certain types…

The Genetics Society of America’s George W. Beadle Award honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the community of genetics researchers and who exemplify the qualities of its namesake. The 2017 recipient is Susan A. Gerbi, who has been a prominent leader and advocate for the scientific community. In the course of her research…

Inheriting an extra chromosome can sometimes be disastrous, but in the September issue of G3, Linder et al. investigate a chromosome duplication that helps yeast survive harsh conditions. Yeast with an extra copy of chromosome IV better tolerate hydrogen peroxide exposure, largely thanks to an extra copy of a gene that detoxifies the chemical. This…

Even though domestic plants usually appear radically different from their wild relatives, they are often still able to interbreed. For transgenic crops carrying traits like herbicide resistance, this flexibility could pose a problem if they were to pollinate weedy relatives nearby. In the July issue of GENETICS, Adamczyk-Chauvat et al. examine the extent to which…

Fascinating discoveries sometimes emerge from the most daunting of experimental roadblocks. Designed to generate over 1,000 recombinant inbred mice lines for genetic mapping, the Collaborative Cross (CC) project unearthed astounding variation in male fertility when nearly 95% of the highly inbred CC lines went extinct. As part of the Multiparental Populations series in the June…

Multiparental populations (MPPs) have brought a new era in mapping complex traits, as well as new analytical challenges. To face these challenges and encourage innovation, the GSA journals launched the ongoing Multiparental Populations series in 2014. This month’s issues of GENETICS and G3 feature a bumper 16 MPP articles, timed to celebrate a new easy-to-use…

We are pleased to announce that Susan A. Gerbi, PhD is the 2017 recipient of the George W. Beadle Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the genetics community. In the course of her research on DNA replication and amplification, Gerbi has helped develop techniques for mapping replication origins, genome sequencing, and whole organism…

Sex chromosomes have evolved from autosomes hundreds of times across the tree of life. In mammals, sex is controlled by the Y chromosome-linked gene SRY, which triggers the development of male anatomy. Sex determination in most mammals is extremely conserved; essentially all marsupials and placental mammals share the same pair of X and Y chromosomes…

GSA-Art features the creative works of scientists. Read more in GSA President Stan Fields’ call for submissions. If you would like to submit your own work or nominate someone else’s, please send an email to GenesToGenomes@genetics-gsa.org with “GSA-Art” in the subject line. Guest post by Sean Burgess. Chromosome letters is a short novel that follows two young DNA strands, Tabellarius and…

In Kentucky 150 years ago today, a child was born who would—with the help of a hardy inhabitant of trash cans and fruit bowls— grow up to change the world. That boy was Thomas Hunt Morgan. By the 1900s, the energetic young Morgan had become a well-respected expert investigating questions in experimental embryology and animal regeneration.…