Chromosome-Scale Selective Sweeps and Genomic Diversity in C. elegans
Andersen, Gerke et al., Nature Genetics
Researchers at Princeton University and elsewhere discuss the effects of chromosome-scale selective sweeps on genomic diversity in Caenorhabditis elegans. Taking a high-throughput selective sequencing approach on a collection of 200 wild C. elegans strains, the team found that the nematode's "genome variation is dominated by a set of commonly shared haplotypes on four of its six chromosomes, each spanning many megabases." Further, the team reports on its population genetic modeling experiments, which showed that "this pattern was generated by chromosome-scale selective sweeps that have reduced variation worldwide; at least one of these sweeps probably occurred in the last few hundred years," it writes.
Method Developed to Glean Genetic Interactions from Cellular Morphology and Genetic Screen Data
Using a morphological classifier and computational method for integrating this data with information from an RNA interference screen, a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University delved into genetic interactions affecting the Rho signaling pathway in Drosophila.
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