A team from the US and UK introduce a mass spec-based proteomic approach known as quantitative temporal viromics, or QTV, that it used for characterizing proteins in the human cytomegalovirus over different stages of infection. The multiplexed tandem-mass-tag-based method identified more than 8,000 cellular proteins in HCMV — a set that includes possible treatment targets and proteins prone to interactions with the innate and adaptive immune pathways in the host. As such, the study's authors argue that "QTV is a powerful method that can yield important insights into viral infection and is applicable to any virus with a robust in vitro model."
A Cell review outlines the genome engineering capabilities of the CRISPR-associated RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9. Researchers from the Broad Institute, MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Harvard University highlight steps that have been taken to harness the targeted sequence editing skills of Cas9, a component of a bacterial defense system. They also describe research arenas in which this genome editing may be advantageous, along with challenges yet to be resolved when applying Cas9 genome editing.
Finally, Harvard Medical School researchers describe chromatin components involved in regulating divergent non-coding transcripts produced from RNA polymerase II promoters in the yeast. Using fluorescent reporter constructs, the team conducted experiments that involved swapping sequences for one gene body into a region adjacent to the promoter of another. Results of the experiments indicated that components of a chromatin assembly factor 1 pathway negatively regulate divergent transcription initiation, while factors facilitating nucleosome turnover appeared to boost divergent transcription.