In PLoS Genetics this week, McGill University's Brent Richards and his colleagues report on their analysis of data derived from 1,998 individuals they Sanger-sequenced at seven genes, which "provide guidance in the analysis and interpretation of the role of rare base-pair variation in the etiology of complex traits and diseases," the authors write. "These findings provide guidance in the analysis and interpretation of the role of rare base-pair variation in the etiology of complex traits and diseases," Richards et al. add.
Over in PLoS One, researchers in France identify the gene encoding S100 calcium binding protein A11 as a potential diagnostic biomarker of infective endocarditis. The team also identified the aquaporin-9 gene as a potential prognostic factor.
In a PLoS Computational Biology paper published this week, a public-private team led by investigators at the Rockville, Md.-based Ariadne Genomics presents an approach to the meta-analysis of microarray datasets that "relies on aggregation of individual profiling experiments combined with leave-one-dataset-out validation approach." Using the Sub-Network Enrichment Analysis algorithm, the team studied aggregated publicly available human muscle gene expression profiling datasets related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, identifying potential "muscle remodeling-related drug targets and biomarkers" of the disease.
Finally, in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, and Imperial College London's John Mumford discuss the regulation of genetically modified insects on an international scale.