Nature does the field justice with a large special supplement on epigenetics. Highlights include research on RNA interference and chromatin organization in transcriptional regulation, epigenetic inheritance in plants, and the role epigenetics plays in development and disease.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have determined PGC-1alpha, a transcriptional coactivator that regulates energy metabolism, to play a large role in maintaining circadian rhythms through stimulating expression of clock genes, Bmal1 and Rev-erbalpha.
HHMI-affiliated Yale molecular biologists show in this paper that bacteria are not alone in their ability to use metabolite-binding RNAs, otherwise known as riboswitches, to regulate gene expression.
In books, a writer reviews Intervention: Confronting the Real Risks of Genetic Engineering and Life on a Biotech Planet (by Denise Caruso), in which the author looks with a skeptical eye on the history of the US in not effectively evaluating the safety of GMOs or communicating unbiased findings.