Articles

Decoding the multifaceted HIV-1 virus-host interactome

Recently in BMC Medical Genomics, Tozeren and colleagues have uncovered virus-host interactions by searching for conserved peptide motifs in HIV and human proteins. Their computational model provides a novel pers...

Authors: Eric Y Chan, Marcus J Korth and Michael G Katze

Q&A: What are pharmacological chaperones and why are they interesting?

Authors: Dagmar Ringe and Gregory A Petsko

The effects of lipids on channel function

Anionic lipids affect the function of many channels, including connexins, as shown in a recent report in BMC Biology. These effects might follow from direct binding of the anionic lipids to the channels.

Authors: Anthony G Lee

Open questions about influenza A (H1N1) 2009

Authors: Miranda Robertson

Nursing some sense out of Myc

Data recently published in BMC Biology provide insights into the normal physiological function of c-myc in the development and regeneration of the mammary gland and indicate a key role in epithelial cell prolifer...

Authors: Nicole M Sodir and Gerard I Evan

Physical forces in myelination and repair: a question of balance?

A recent report in BMC Cell Biology examines how the balance of extracellular forces and intracellular contractions regulate the shape changes required for oligodendrocyte myelination. A failure of remyelination ...

Authors: Nina G Bauer and Charles ffrench-Constant

Deciphering the genetic code of morphogenesis using functional genomics

A fundamental goal of developmental biology is to define the molecular mechanisms that control cell behavior during morphogenesis. A recent study in BMC Biology combines gene expression profiling, bioinformatics ...

Authors: Athea Vichas and Jennifer A Zallen

The 'stem cell' concept: is it holding us back?

Developmental biology, regenerative medicine and cancer biology are increasingly occupied with the molecular characterization of stem cells. Yet recent work adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that...

Authors: Arthur D Lander

Q&A: What have we found out about the influenza A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic virus?

Authors: Stephen J Turner, Lorena E Brown, Peter C Doherty and Anne Kelso

Complementary pathways in mammalian female sex determination

In mammals, the sex of the embryo is determined by the fate of the gonad. Recent papers, including one in BMC Developmental Biology, shed light on the molecular regulation of ovarian development and suggest that ...

Authors: Serge Nef and Jean-Dominique Vassalli

Motifs from the deep

Because of the increasing recognition of the importance of non-coding RNAs in gene regulation, there is considerable interest in identifying RNA motifs in genomic data. In a recent report in BMC Genomics, Breaker...

Authors: Tony W Hwang, Vlad Codrea and Andrew D Ellington

The absolute pitch mind continues to reveal itself

Absolute pitch has proved useful as an alternative perspective from which to investigate various cognitive faculties. A new functional magnetic resonance imaging study published recently in BMC Neuroscience adds ...

Authors: Patrick Bermudez and Robert J Zatorre

Insulators as mediators of intra- and inter-chromosomal interactions: a common evolutionary theme

Insulator elements mediate intra- and inter-chromosomal interactions. The insulator protein CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is important for insulator function in several animals but a report in BMC Molecular Biology

Authors: Chin-Tong Ong and Victor G Corces

The complex genetic basis of simple behavior

Genetic approaches to dissecting complex traits in animal models increasingly use transcript levels as a molecular phenotype and as validation for predictions of gene function. A recent study in BMC Biology using...

Authors: Anna J Jasinska and Nelson B Freimer

Dysregulating the regulators

Authors: Miranda Robertson

Beyond toxicity: aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated functions in the immune system

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor is a ligand-activated transcriptional regulator that binds dioxin and other exogenous contaminants and is responsible for their toxic effects, including immunosuppression. New evi...

Authors: Brigitta Stockinger

Infectious causes of cancer and their detection

Molecular techniques for identifying pathogens associated with cancer continue to be developed, including one reported recently in BMC Medical Genomics. Identifying a causal infectious agent helps in understandin...

Authors: Lucy Dalton-Griffin and Paul Kellam

The human spermatozoon – a stripped down but refined machine

A recent paper in BMC Developmental Biology describes the development of the annulus of the mouse sperm cell, but much remains to be learnt about sperm cells despite their importance in human fertility.

Authors: Christopher LR Barratt, Vanessa Kay and Senga K Oxenham

Parasite immunomodulation and polymorphisms of the immune system

Parasites are accomplished evaders of host immunity. Their evasion strategies have shaped every facet of the immune system, driving diversity within gene families and immune gene polymorphisms within populatio...

Authors: Rick M Maizels

From bending DNA to diabetes: the curious case of HMGA1

Although mice lacking the architectural DNA binding factor HMGA1 are diabetic and express very low levels of the insulin receptor, they have increased insulin sensitivity. A study in BMC Biology now suggests that...

Authors: Robert K Semple

The where and wherefore of evolutionary breakpoints

The 'action' in genome-level evolution lies not in the large gene-containing segments that are conserved among related species, but in the breakpoint regions between these segments. Two recent papers in BMC Genom...

Authors: David Sankoff

Comparative embryology without a microscope: using genomic approaches to understand the evolution of development

Until recently, understanding developmental conservation and change has relied on embryological comparisons and analyses of single genes. Several studies, including one recently published in BMC Biology, have now...

Authors: David A Garfield and Gregory A Wray

Of primordial genomes and cooperative kittens

Authors: Miranda Robertson

Search for a 'Tree of Life' in the thicket of the phylogenetic forest

Comparative genomics has revealed extensive horizontal gene transfer among prokaryotes, a development that is often considered to undermine the 'tree of life' concept. However, the possibility remains that a s...

Authors: Pere Puigbò, Yuri I Wolf and Eugene V Koonin

Trees in the Web of Life

Reconstructing the 'Tree of Life' is complicated by extensive horizontal gene transfer between diverse groups of organisms. While numerous conceptual and technical obstacles remain, a report in this issue of Jour...

Authors: Kristen S Swithers, J Peter Gogarten and Gregory P Fournier

Vernalization in cereals

How vernalization – exposure to a period of cold – induces flowering in Arabidopsis has been intensively investigated at the genetic and moleular levels. Recent papers, including one in BMC Plant Biology, shed li...

Authors: Elizabeth S Dennis and W James Peacock

Do unicolonial wood ants favor kin?

Vast supercolonies of interconnected nests formed by unicolonial ant species are the largest cooperative groups of animals known. Research published recently in BMC Evolutionary Biology reveals that a supercolony...

Authors: Heikki Helanterä

Clocks, cryptochromes and Monarch migrations

The annual migration of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) from eastern North America to central Mexico is one of nature's most inspiring spectacles. Recent studies including one in BMC Biology, have begun ...

Authors: Charalambos P Kyriacou

Oxidative stress, thermogenesis and evolution of uncoupling proteins

The uncoupling protein UCP1 provides eutherian mammals with an efficient thermogenic mechanism. Recent work published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, following the identification of UCP1 orthologs in non-eutherians,...

Authors: Eduardo Rial and Rafael Zardoya

Q&A: Cooperativity

Authors: James E Ferrell Jr

Influenza: one or two more questions

Authors: Miranda Robertson

Transcription in mosquito hemocytes in response to pathogen exposure

Mosquito hemocytes are blood cells that are fundamental for combating systemic infection. A study published in BMC Genomics shows that hemocyte gene transcription in response to immune challenge is pathogen-speci...

Authors: Julián F Hillyer

Fish 'n' TRIMs

A novel diversified multigene family of tripartite-motif (TRIM) intracellular receptors with putative antiviral activity has been identified in teleost fish and published in BMC Biology. The history of these rece...

Authors: Louis Du Pasquier

Letting go: modification of cell adhesion during apoptosis

Apoptosis appears to be a carefully orchestrated process for the ordered dismantling of cells. A recent paper in BMC Developmental Biology shows that the disassembly of adherens junctions during apoptosis in Dros...

Authors: Magali Suzanne and Hermann Steller

Can modular analysis identify disease-associated candidate genes for therapeutics?

Complex diseases such as allergy change gene expression in several cell types and tissues. Benson and colleagues have now shown, in a paper in BMC Systems Biology, that this complexity can be studied effectively ...

Authors: Jesper Tegnér

Biologists who count*

Authors: Miranda Robertson

Prion variants, species barriers, generation and propagation

Prion variants faithfully propagate across species barriers, but if the barrier is too high, new variants (mutants) are selected, as shown in a recent BMC Biology report. Protein sequence alteration can prevent a...

Authors: Reed B Wickner, Herman K Edskes, Frank Shewmaker, Dmitry Kryndushkin and Julie Nemecek

Q&A: What do we know about influenza and what can we do about it?

Authors: Peter C Doherty and Stephen J Turner

Notch signaling, the segmentation clock, and the patterning of vertebrate somites

The Notch signaling pathway has multifarious functions in the organization of the developing vertebrate embryo. One of its most fundamental roles is in the emergence of the regular pattern of somites that will...

Authors: Julian Lewis, Anja Hanisch and Maxine Holder

Q&A: Epistasis

Authors: Frederick P Roth, Howard D Lipshitz and Brenda J Andrews

Parental squabbles and genome expression: lessons from the polyploids

The merger of evolutionarily diverged genomes to form a new polyploid genetic system can involve extensive remodeling of gene regulation. A recent paper in BMC Biology provides important insights into regulatory ...

Authors: Daniela Pignatta and Luca Comai

Natural and engineered mosquito immunity

A recent paper in BMC Microbiology shows how suppression of mosquito innate immunity against a virus that the mosquito can normally tolerate increases mosquito mortality. This is just one of several approaches th...

Authors: Luke Alphey

How do terrestrial Antarctic organisms survive in their harsh environment?

Anhydrobiosis, or extreme desiccation tolerance, is one of the strategies that allows terrestrial Antarctic organisms to survive in a harsh environment. A new study in BMC Genomics analyses gene expression in an ...

Authors: David A Wharton and Craig J Marshall

The genetics of gender and life span

Several possible and potentially overlapping genetic mechanisms have been suggested to explain differences in life span between males and females. Two recent papers in BMC Evolutionary Biology on the effects of i...

Authors: John Tower and Michelle Arbeitman

Why do taste cells generate action potentials?

Taste cells regularly generate action potentials, but their functional significance in taste signaling is unclear. A paper in BMC Neuroscience reveals the identity of the voltage-gated Na⁺ channels underlying act...

Authors: Aurelie Vandenbeuch and Sue C Kinnamon

The origin and evolution of lactation

The presence of mammary glands is the defining morphological feature of mammals. The recent assembly of the bovine genome and a report in Genome Biology that links the milk and lactation data of bovine and other ...

Authors: Anthony V Capuco and R Michael Akers

The cattle genome reveals its secrets

The domesticated cow is the latest farm animal to have its genome sequenced and deciphered. The members of the Bovine Genome Consortium have published a series of papers on the assembly and what the sequence r...

Authors: David W Burt

Is genetic diversity really higher in large populations?

Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have challenged the concept that genetic diversity within populations is governed by effective population size and mutation rate. A recent study in BMC Evolutionary Biology s...

Authors: Hans Ellegren

Q&A: Genetic analysis of quantitative traits

Authors: Trudy FC Mackay

Teaching new dogs old tricks

Authors: Miranda Robertson