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.
'Dueling Bills'
Many researchers have been busy protesting the proposed Research Works Act, a bill that would limit public access to research funded with taxpayers' money. But now, says ScienceInsider's Jocelyn Kaiser, a second group of lawmakers has proposed a "dueling bill" — the Federal Research Public Access Act. This new bill would make any scientific paper funded with public money freely available on the Internet, Kaiser says. "[It] would expand to other research agencies the National Institutes of Health's 4-year-old policy requiring investigators it funds to submit copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts for posting in a public database," she adds. "The bill would also set at 6 months the length of time an agency can wait to make the paper public after it appears in a journal (NIH's current policy is 12 months)."