Connection Between Epigenome, Selective Mutability, Evolution, and Human Disease
Li, Harris et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere propose a "connection between the epigenome, selective mutability, evolution, and human disease" based on the findings of their study on associations of structural mutability with germline DNA methylation and with non-allelic homologous recombination mediated by low-copy repeats. "Combined evidence from four human sperm methylome maps, human genome evolution, structural polymorphisms in the human population, and previous genomic and disease studies consistently points to a strong association of germline hypomethylation and genomic instability," the Baylor-led team writes.
API for Statistical Phylogenetics with HPC
Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed BEAGLE, an application programming interface and specialized library for high-performance statistical phylogenetic inference that allows existing software packages to make more effective use of available computer hardware including GPUs, CPUs with Streaming SIMD Extensions, and multi-core CPUs via OpenMP.
The team profiled their research in Systematic Biology and write that "a specialized library for phylogenetic calculation would allow existing software packages to make more effective use of available computer hardware, including GPUs. Adoption of a common library would also make it easier for other emerging computing architectures, such as field programmable gate arrays, to be used in the future."
BEAGLE is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. It is freely available for download here.