Published in Genetics
The purpose of germ cells is to ensure the faithful transmission of genetic material to the next generation. To develop into mature gametes, germ cells must pass through cell cycle checkpoints while maintaining totipotency and genomic integrity. How germ cells coordinate developmental events while simultaneously protecting their unique fate is not ...
Published in Genetics
Crosses between Drosophila melanogaster females and Drosophila simulans males produce hybrid sons that die at the larval stage. This hybrid lethality is suppressed by loss-of-function mutations in the D. melanogaster Hybrid male rescue (Hmr) or in the D. simulans Lethal hybrid rescue (Lhr) genes. Previous studies have shown that Hmr and Lhr interac...
Published in Genetics
Motile and immotile (or primary) cilia are microtubule-based structures that mediate multiple cellular functions, including the transduction of environmental cues, developmental signaling, cellular motility, and modulation of fluid flow. Although their core architectures are similar, motile and primary cilia exhibit marked structural differences th...
Published in Genetics
In a genetic screen for mutants showing modified splicing of an alternatively spliced GFP reporter gene in Arabidopsis thaliana, we identified mutations in genes encoding the putative U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) factors RBM25 and PRP39a. The latter has not yet been studied for its role in pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) splicing in plan...
Published in Genetics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mek1 is a CHK2/Rad53-family kinase that regulates meiotic recombination and progression upon its activation in response to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). The full catalog of direct Mek1 phosphorylation targets remains unknown. Here, we show that phosphorylation of histone H3 on threonine 11 (H3 T11ph) is induced by meioti...
Published in Genetics
Testing for the existence of variance components in linear mixed models is a fundamental task in many applicative fields. In statistical genetics, the score test has recently become instrumental in the task of testing an association between a set of genetic markers and a phenotype. With few markers, this amounts to set-based variance component test...
Published in Genetics
A crucial step in plant breeding is the selection and combination of parents to form new crosses. Genome-based prediction guides the selection of high-performing parental lines in many crop breeding programs which ensures a high mean performance of progeny. To warrant maximum selection progress, a new cross should also provide a large progeny varia...
Published in Genetics
serine threonine kinase1 (stk1) and serine threonine kinase2 (stk2) are closely related maize paralogous genes predicted to encode serine/threonine protein kinases. Pollen mutated in stk1 or stk2 competes poorly with normal pollen, pointing to a defect in pollen tube germination or growth. Both genes are expressed in pollen, but not in most other t...
Published in Genetics
Over the past decade, genetic studies have recognized hundreds of polymorphic DNA loci called response QTLs (reQTLs) as potential contributors to interindividual variation in transcriptional responses to stimulations. Such reQTLs commonly affect the transduction of signals along the regulatory network that controls gene transcription. Identifying t...
Published in Genetics
Low levels of the essential amino acids lysine (Lys) and methionine (Met) in a maize-based diet are a major cost to feed and food. Lys deficiency is due to the abundance of Lys-poor proteins in maize kernels. Although a maize mutant, opaque-2 (o2), has sufficient levels of Lys, its soft kernel renders it unfit for storage and transportation. Breede...
